mleng
10-21-2002, 01:07 PM
I have an older crib (5 years old, Simmons) that was in good shape except a few scratches and chips. I bought a spray can of enamel and touched up on those spots. However, after I had finished, I noticed a message on the crib, which says "when refinishing, make sure to use non-toxic paint specified for children's use".
I did some research and found a lot about paint and their inherent danger. Basically all paint has Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), which gives the paint smell. It's really bad for you, and obviously worse for babies. The truly child-safe non-toxic paint has VOC less than 5 grams per liter, but most regular paint has VOC somewhere between 150~300 grams per liter.
My question is, since the paint only smells when it's wet, does that mean after the paint completely dries, there is no VOC left? In other words, how dangerous is dried paint to a baby? This is especially important for a crib where the baby can lick and even chew the paint.
As a side note, I noticed many users on this board prefer imported European cribs. In general, American government poses a much more strict limit on things such as VOC and etc. So depending on the answer to my question "how much VOC is left in dried paint", people may want to reconsider their preferred choice of imported cribs.
I did some research and found a lot about paint and their inherent danger. Basically all paint has Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), which gives the paint smell. It's really bad for you, and obviously worse for babies. The truly child-safe non-toxic paint has VOC less than 5 grams per liter, but most regular paint has VOC somewhere between 150~300 grams per liter.
My question is, since the paint only smells when it's wet, does that mean after the paint completely dries, there is no VOC left? In other words, how dangerous is dried paint to a baby? This is especially important for a crib where the baby can lick and even chew the paint.
As a side note, I noticed many users on this board prefer imported European cribs. In general, American government poses a much more strict limit on things such as VOC and etc. So depending on the answer to my question "how much VOC is left in dried paint", people may want to reconsider their preferred choice of imported cribs.