Title: Oil Paints — How Safe Are They? | Artists Network
Headings: Oil Paints — How Safe Are They?
Oil Paints — How Safe Are They?
Q. I’ve heard people say that painting with traditional and water-soluble oils poses health hazards for the painter. Some say even people with whom the painter comes in close contact, such as family members, are at risk. Just how safe or unsafe are oil paints?
1. Drying Oils
2. Stabilizers
3. Soaplike Substance
Safe-Use Practices for Oils
Q. What safety precautions should I follow when painting with oils?
1. Keep paint and solvents off your skin.
2. Paint in a well-ventilated area.
Waste Management for Oils
Q. How can I safely dispose of oil painting materials?
How to Use a Solvent Can
What to Do When the Solvent Can is Full
LEARN MORE

Content: Pigments can be as benign as common dirt or as harmful as many other chemicals are to the human body. Many of the paints used by artists from the Middle Ages to the late 20th century had varying degrees of toxicity. Even today, while the most highly toxic pigments have disappeared, no pigment should be considered nontoxic. The one property that makes oil paints so safe to use is that the pigment is bound in a liquid vehicle (the drying oil). Therefore the problem of dry powder finding its way into artists’ lungs or flying about and landing on their families’ food is eliminated. Even the nastiest of pigments, which no longer are readily available, wouldn’t give off toxic vapors or be otherwise harmful unless taken directly into the digestive system by mouth or, in the case of some pigments, they came in direct contact with unprotected skin. Safe-Use Practices for Oils
Q. What safety precautions should I follow when painting with oils? A. My recommended safety precautions fall into two main areas: 1. Keep paint and solvents off your skin.