Paints health effects

Ethylene oxide (qv), propylene oxide (qv), butylene oxide, and other epoxides react with ethanol to give a variety of Uquid, viscous, semiwax, and soUd products. These products are used ia the coatings iadustry as solvents, and as paints, antioxidants, corrosion inhibitors, and special-purpose polymers. Recent concerns about the health effects of ethanol containing glycol ethers have led to the decline in the production of these compounds. 

Industrial painters may suffer adverse health effects from over exposure to paint by skin contact or accidental ingestion, from excessive inhalation of paint aerosol, solvent vapour, or of dust in the case of electrostatically-applied powder coatings (e.g. polyesters containing triglycidyl isocyanurate), or from exposure to thermal degradation products from heated paint or plastic coatings (Table 5.48). 

Lead Combustion of leaded petrol Solder, lead-containing paint Lead smelting Adverse health effects... 

Around the beginning of this century, cancer and illness was associated with excessive use of X-rays. Watch dial painters got mouth cancer from radium in the paint. It soon was realized that radiation has health effects. The measures of energy deposition concepts introduced... 

Lead is produced from both primary (i.e., mined ore) and secondary (i.e., scrap metal and wastes) sources, and is imported by the United States. In 1997, production from primary and secondary sources was 343,000 metric tons and 1.1 million metric tons, respectively (Smith 1998), and imports reached 265,000 metric tons (Larrabee 1998 Smith 1998). Approximately 1.6 million metric tons of lead were consumed in the United States in 1997 (Smith 1998). Of lead used in 1997, 86.9% was used for storage batteries, 7.8% was used in metal products, and 5.3% was used in miscellaneous applications (Smith 1998). Because of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to lead, its use in paints, ceramic products, gasoline additives (now banned), and solder has declined dramatically in recent years. In 1997,... 

Two of the more interesting uses of pharmacokinetic data in risk assessment involve the neurotoxic agents lead and methylmercury (Chapter 4). In the case of lead, epidemiological studies have typically involved the development of quantitative relationships between levels of lead in the blood and adverse health effects. Other measures of lead in the body have also been used. Levels in blood are now very easy to measure, and they do carry the strong advantage that they integrate cumulative exposures from many possible sources (water, food, paint, soil, air, consumer products). Current public health targets for lead are expressed as blood concentrations, typically in pg/dL (Chapter 4). 

Hexanone, also known as methyl n-butyl ketone or MBK, is a clear, colorless liquid with a somewhat sharp odor. The liquid form can easily evaporate into the air as a vapor. It is a waste product of wood pulping, coal gasification, and oil shale operations. 2-Hexanone was formerly used in paint and paint thinner and in various chemical substances. However, since it was found to have harmful health effects, it is no longer made in the United States, and its uses have been restricted. There are no known major natural sources of 2-hexanone in the environment. When 2-hexanone is released to rivers or lakes, it dissolves very easily, and it may evaporate into the air in a few days. We do not know if 2-hexanone binds to soil. When 2-hexanone is released to the water, air, or soil, it is probably broken down into smaller products, possibly within a few days. 

For paints emitting 2-butanonoxime, the risk posed by the maximum occupational exposure during typical use presents concerns regarding developmental toxicity health effects. 

Lead. The sources are leaded gasoline, paint, smelters (metal refineries), and manufacture of lead storage batteries. Health effects are as follows causes brain and other nervous systems damage (children are at special risk), causes cancer in animals, causes digestive and other health problems. Effects on the environment include harming wildlife. 

Limited information is available regarding the health effects of barium following dermal exposure. Barium salts would be expected to have a local effect on skin surfaces and would not likely be absorbed systematically to any great extent. Available studies include a case report of an individual exposed dermally to molten barium chloride (Stewart and Hummel 1984), a skin irritation study evaluating barium carbonate in experimental animals (Tarasenko et al. 1977), and a skin-painting study in which mice were exposed dermally to a barium hydroxide extract of tobacco leaf (Van Duuren et al. 1968). No reliable information was available from any of these dermal studies to identify study NOAELs or LOAELs for barium. In the case report (Stewart and Hummel 1984), the dermal burns that developed in the individual exposed to molten barium chloride may potentially have contributed to some of the reported health effects, which are described briefly in Section 2.2.3.2 (Systemic Effects). 

However, acute and physical hazards may be indicated on the label, while chronic health effects labelling based on risk is not indicated. This may be due in part to the expectation that exposures to some consumer products are of short duration, and thus may not be sufficient to lead to the development of chronic health effects as a result of those exposures. These expectations may not be accurate where consumer products are used in a workplace, e.g. paints or adhesives used by construction workers on a regular basis... 

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