Title: The Health Risks of Painting with Oils, Acrylics, and Watercolors - Artsy
Headings: Your Paints May Contain Toxic Chemicals. Here’s How to Avoid Harming Yourself and the Environment
Creativity
Your Paints May Contain Toxic Chemicals. Here’s How to Avoid Harming Yourself and the Environment
Photo by Jenna S.
Know what your paints are made of
Paint swatches.
Be aware of toxic pigments
Paint and materials.
Make your studio safe
Follow best practices for disposing of paint and materials

Content: And, with some knowledge and a few simple strategies, artists can paint healthily into old age. Below, we share some of the key health and safety issues pertaining to painting, and ways to avoid them. Know what your paints are made of
Paint swatches. Oil paints are essentially made of two components: pigments and a vehicle; acrylic paints are composed of pigments, plus a vehicle and a binder. Vehicles are the liquid part of the paint that holds the pigments in suspension, and binders act like cement, allowing the pigments to stick together and form a paint film. In oil paints, the vehicle and binder are one and the same: highly refined vegetable oils such as flax (which the paint world calls “linseed”), safflower, poppy, and walnut. These oils dry slowly through oxidation, creating a hard film of paint when they come in contact with air.