How Long After Painting A Room Is Safe For Baby?
Many chemical compounds are containing in various products you are using daily around you and your family. The problem is exposure to them for a certain time can be very harmful especially for children, susceptible people, unborn babies, and pregnant women. Household paint is commonly known with these volatile compounds. So, the question is how long after painting a room safe for baby commonly asked. This article will make it clear to you right now.
What are the health concerns with paints?
Most paints contain various chemicals and potential hazards that can cause many health effects. However, the likelihood and the extent of health effect varies due to many relating factors including the chemical amount, the exposing time length as well as a person’s age and pre-existing medical conditions. The most common symptoms that may happen immediately to some person after exposing to these chemicals are throat or lung irritation, dizziness, headaches or vision problems. More seriously, the long exposure to high levels of paint which usually occurs in professional painters may lead to cancer or damaging the nervous system, kidneys and liver. Because of many health risks, babies, unborn babies, and pregnant women are always advised to avoid freshly painted places.
There are many safety precautions you can find to read and follow to reduce those potential problems. Usually, it is essential to choose the products which will emit less harmful vapors and chemicals. Water-based paints or latex paints are safer than oil-based paints, so they are commonly used in homes. Moreover, the toxicity amount may be different among paint brands.
If you are very concerned about your baby’s chemical exposure, then non-toxic or organic products will suit you best. You will certainly be careful about the paint type after choosing a special color and design for your baby’s room.
There are many different products advertised to be low VOC (volatile organic compounds), VOC free, non-toxic, or eco-friendly as consumers are now more cautious about whether the paint they buy is truly safe. Especially most parents consider kids safety is their priority and they may wonder how long it is considered to be safe for their kids in a freshly painted house.
How long after painting a room is safe for baby?
Follow the basic rule that the freshly-painted place should not be used within 2 or 3 days so that the amount of volatile materials has time to go away. Make arrangements to keep your kids out of the room for a while to ensure their safety. It is best to wait until the painted room has completely dried so that the irritating paint fumes will not irritate or bother them.
However, make sure that you select the right paint as drying time can be significantly different from various types of paints.
This type of paint is odorless, and it does not release any harmful chemicals. So it is the safest and you do not have to wait for several days.
Low-VOC paint is another choice. In general, low-VOC paints aren’t odor-free. If you choose this paint type, I suggest you wait at least 1 day for the odor to disappear.
Oil-based or latex paint
These paints require more time to dry and the toxic chemicals cannot be released up to two weeks. Make sure the room properly ventilated by opening windows and fans if possible.
Paint needs time to change from liquid to dry form and odors are released with evaporating gases during the process. The harmful volatile compounds are also released into the air. Oil-based paints have stronger odors so that they will certainly take more time for the smell to go off while other low environmental impact called low and VOC-free paints have no odors and fewer contaminants which is safe for a child’s room. Additionally, these products are made from recycled materials, which can also reduce the environmental impact. However, remember when using any paint is to allow the room to air out by keeping your windows wide-open and using exhaust fans until it’s thoroughly dry and the VOCs are already gone.
After all, it is the safer route to decide to use VOC-free paint which seems to be effective and less risky to health as it will limit the exposure time to fresh paint fume for the safety of your baby.