VOCs in Paint

Indoor Air Quality 

Considering Americans spend 90% of time indoors, it’s important to protect the air quality inside. In fact, the EPA website points out the disparity in toxins inside versus outside: “The concentrations of some pollutants are often 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations.” All of that being said, it can be difficult to know where to start. With so many options on flooring, furniture, and other items, consumers need to investigate which choices might be more green and have less harmful emissions. 

GREENGUARD 

There’s an organization in place to help consumers find products that create a safer indoor environment. According to their website, “GREENGUARD Certification helps manufacturers create--and helps buyers identify--interior products and materials that have low chemical emissions, improving the quality of the air in which the products are used.” They’ve partnered with other organizations to create a database to look up products and make better choices.

Low or No VOC

More specifically, another effective step in protecting indoor air quality is to seek out low or no VOC products. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are compounds that easily become vapors or gases.” A big source of VOCs are paint products. Ghent uses low-VOC paint in our glassboards.

Safer Cleanup

Not only are Ghent’s low-VOC paints better for the environment, they are better for our employees. Clean up is easy–we can clean with just soap and water versus cleaning with solvents for lacquer thinner (harmful for employees to be breathing).

Other Advantages

The colors that Ghent makes are formula mixed, which makes it so we can match PMS colors, paint chips, or CMYK values. The alternative that other competitors are using is hand mixing epoxy paint to replicate colors, which doesn’t have a more accurate “match.” Also, paint adhesion to the glass is excellent based on standard adhesion tests (Cross Hatch test). Ours passes at the highest level. So, there you have it. Not only is Ghent’s paint safer, it also has superior color matching qualities.