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 lastly, an often-overlooked solution to a toxic studio is to find safer alternatives to problematic materials. Instead of using oil mediums and solvents with warning labels about the dangers of inhalation, try using only linseed or walnut oil to dilute your paints, and common vegetable oil to clean your brushes. Oil paints don’t give off gas as they dry, so these changes would effectively eliminate painting as a source of indoor pollution. Both oil and acrylic painters can also find alternatives to dangerous pigments, such as paints that look and behave like the real thing, but use safer pigments and cost a fraction of the price. Most manufacturers sell alternatives to lead, cadmium, manganese, cerulean, and more. Check the tubes and find a pigment that has the color you love, without the warning labels. Follow best practices for disposing of paint and materials
Studio workshop of artist Marc Desgrandchamps in Lyon, France, 2016. Photo by Catherine Panchout/Sygma via Getty Images. Painting generates a lot of waste, from used paper towels or rags to pigments suspended in solvent or water, and it’s important to dispose of these as hazardous waste—it’s the key to being a responsible painter. All paint, regardless of medium, contains the same pigments, which means that acrylic and oil painters—including those who use water-mixable oils—need to save their paint sludge and rags, and bring them to special disposal sites.