Found Not Lost

Here’s how to make it safer.

I have a family of artists. My daughters were painting before they could write their names. Today, they squeal as loudly for an ipod as for a sketchpad or a paint set. My husband, as much as he likes to encourage their artistic side, always cautions them against using some of the chemicals he works with though. He knows how dangerous some of those chemicals can be if you are not careful with them. Unless they are painting outdoors, for instance, the girls are not allowed to use oil paint.

In the studio or hobby room, dangerous chemicals and metals include:

* Lead in ceramic glazes, stained-glass materials, and many pigments.
* Cadmium in silver solders, pigments, ceramic glazes, and fluxes.
* Chromium in paint pigment and ceramic colors.
* Manganese dioxide in ceramic colors and some brown oil and acrylic paint pigments.
* Cobalt in some blue oil and acrylic paint pigments.
* Formaldehyde as a preservative in many acrylic paints and photographic products.
* Aromatic hydrocarbons in paint and varnish removers, aerosol sprays, permanent markers, etc.
* Chlorinated hydrocarbons (as solvents) in ink, varnish and paint removers, rubber cement, aerosol sprays.
* Petroleum distillates (as solvents) in paint and rubber cement thinners, spray adhesives, silk-screen inks.
* Glycol ethers and acetates in photography products, lacquer thinners, paints, and aerosol sprays.

Read the rest of the tips on Arts & Crafts Safety.