Today, most everyone recognizes the importance of being a good environmental steward. And that stewardship begins in how we live within our most personal environment - our home. PQI supports sustainable and environmentally-advanced paint and building materials and can help consumers understand the benefits of painting green, regardless of the color on the wall.

"Today's environmentally-advanced paints are high-performance products that provide many years of service, yielding beautiful and durable finishes that extend the time until repaint."
- Stewart Williams PQI Technical Director

Today, water-based paints dominate and account for roughly 80% of paints sold in the residential market.

The function of organic solvents in a paint relates to certain properties it brings – it facilitates the paint’s application, it’s drying, and the formation of a regular paint film. During application and drying, the solvent evaporates. Ideally a dry paint film no longer contains solvent. However when they evaporate, these solvents release Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, with a negative, toxic impact on the environment.

It revealed that some children’s face paints
contains lead, a neurotoxin, as well as nickel, cobalt and chromium, which can cause lifelong skin sensitization and contact dermatitis.

Even more terrifying is that these metals were not listed on the products’ ingredient labels. Some of the products tested even had misleading claims like “hypoallergenic” and “FDA compliant”, making it tough for parents to make an informed decision. Experts

Experts say there is no safe level of lead exposure for children and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that parents avoid using cosmetics on their children that could be contaminated with lead.
Lead may be a contaminant in over 650 products listed in Skin Deep. Lead can be found in a range of cosmetic products including sunscreens, foundation, nail colors, lipsticks and whitening toothpaste. Several ingredients derived from plant sources, such as cottonseed oils and rice derivatives, may contain heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Second Nature arterial jaymemattson.com

As of February 10th of this year, penalties go into effect for any retailer or manufacturer knowingly selling toys or any other children's products (including clothing, books and bikes) containing levels of lead or phthalates above government standards -- 600 ppm total for lead and 0.1% of total for phthalates . These cannot be sold, either new or by resale shops, thrift stores, or even garage sales
Google Search Results 1,760,000 for children’s face paints.
Does any one Care?

One report listed test results for 10 face paint products, the types widely available via the Internet or in craft or Halloween stores. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released the report, titled Pretty Scary: Could Halloween Face Paint Cause Lifelong Health Problems?

"All 10 face paint products tested contained lead, and six out of 10 had known skin allergens, including nickel, cobalt, or chromium, at levels above recommendations of industry studies," says Stacy Malkan, the campaign's co-founder and a co-author of the report. Malkan is also the author of Not Just a Pretty Face, a 2007 book detailing what she sees as the potentially hazardous ingredients in cosmetics.

What You Should Know About Lead Based Paint in Your Home: Safety Alert

CPSC Document #5054

Lead-based paint is hazardous to your health.

Lead-based paint is a major source of lead poisoning for children and can also affect adults. In children, lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage and can impair mental functioning. It can retard mental and physical development and reduce attention span. It can also retard fetal development even at extremely low levels of lead. In adults, it can cause irritability, poor muscle coordination, and nerve damage to the sense organs and nerves controlling the body. Lead poisoning may also cause problems with reproduction (such as a decreased sperm count). It may also increase blood pressure. Thus, young children, fetuses, infants, and adults with high blood pressure are the most vulnerable to the effects of lead.

Children should be screened for lead poisoning.

In communities where the houses are old and deteriorating, take advantage of available screening programs offered by local health departments and have children checked regularly to see if they are suffering from lead poisoning. Because the early symptoms of lead poisoning are easy to confuse with other illnesses, it is difficult to diagnose lead poisoning without medical testing. Early symptoms may include persistent tiredness, irritability, loss of appetite, stomach discomfort, reduced attention span, insomnia, and constipation. Failure to treat children in the early stages can cause long-term or permanent health damage.

The current blood lead level which defines lead poisoning is 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. However, since poisoning may occur at lower levels than previously thought, various federal agencies are considering whether this level should be lowered further so that lead poisoning prevention programs will have the latest information on testing children for lead poisoning.

Consumers can be exposed to lead from paint.

Eating paint chips is one way young children are exposed to lead. It is not the most common way that consumers, in general, are exposed to lead. Ingesting and inhaling lead dust that is created as lead-based paint "chalks," chips, or peels from deteriorated surfaces can expose consumers to lead. Walking on small paint chips found on the floor, or opening and closing a painted frame window, can also create lead dust. Other sources of lead include deposits that may be present in homes after years of use of leaded gasoline and from industrial sources like smelting. Consumers can also generate lead dust by sanding lead-based paint or by scraping or heating lead-based paint.

Lead dust can settle on floors, walls, and furniture. Under these conditions, children can ingest lead dust from hand-to-mouth con- tact or in food. Settled lead dust can re-enter the air through cleaning, such as sweeping or vacuuming, or by movement of people throughout the house.

Older homes may contain lead based paint.

Lead was used as a pigment and drying agent in "alkyd" oil based paint. "Latex" water based paints generally have not contained lead. About two-thirds of the homes built before 1940 and one-half of the homes built from 1940 to 1960 contain heavily-leaded paint. Some homes built after 1960 also contain heavily-leaded paint. It may be on any interior or exterior surface, particularly on woodwork, doors, and windows. In 1978, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission lowered the legal maximum lead content in most kinds of paint to 0.06% (a trace amount). Consider having the paint in homes constructed before the 1980s tested for lead before renovating or if the paint or underlying surface is deteriorating. This is particularly important if infants, children, or pregnant women are present.

Consumers can have paint tested for lead.

There are do-it-yourself kits available. However, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has not evaluated any of these kits. One home test kit uses sodium sulfide solution. This procedure requires you to place a drop of sodium sulfide solution on a paint chip. The paint chip slowly turns darker if lead is present. There are problems with this test, however. Other metals may cause false positive results, and resins in the paint may prevent the sulfide from causing the paint chip to change color. Thus, the presence of lead may not be correctly indicated. In addition the darkening may be detected only on very light-colored paint.

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