Tips
Safety Measures
Paint jobs usually involve exposure to several classes of risk, both because of handling toxic and inflammable products and also because of the type of material and equipment used in surface preparation and paint application. Therefore, the safety factor is one that material suppliers and users must analyze simultaneously with other factors.
Risk Causes
- - Paint inflammability and toxicity
- - Handling of compressed air-activated equipment
- - Mechanical equipment
- - Confined spaces
- - Paint jobs are usually performed in places where falls are likely (ladders or scaffolds).
Risk Classes
Risk of fire and explosion
In general, almost all paints are inflammable due to their being made up of solvents and reducing agents that emit inflammable vapors during application. Flames, flares and sparks are the main sources of fire ignition and can result from welding or cutting equipment, or sparks caused by electric circuit problems.
- - Most of the inorganic pigments and fillers are not combustible, but depending on the type of agglutinant, these can cause inflammability, with the exception of chlorinated rubber-based agglutinants, vinyl chloride copolymers and silicates.
- - Cleanup rags (towels and cotton rags, etc.) containing drying oil-based paint residues or drying oil-modified alkyd resins are serious sources of fire, which can be caused by spontaneous combustion.
Health Risks
In general, we can define health risks as follows:
- - Toxicity due to welding and cutting equipment flames;
- - Direct poisoning due to gastrointestinal ingestion;
- - Suffocation and breathing difficulties due to the inhalation of toxic solvent vapors;
- - Skin irritation and lesions due to the skin absorption of solvents resulting in symptoms that include irritability of the respiratory system, headaches, fatigue, trembling, dizziness, lack of appetite, etc;
- - Due to the mechanical action of the tools used for surface preparation.
Raw Materials
- Agglutinants - Epoxy resins, and amine-based hardeners, isocyanates and unsaturated polyesters are those offering the most serious risk.
- Pigments and Fillers - The most hazardous are those containing lead (red lead, white lead, lead molybdate, etc), the chromates (zinc chromate) and organometallic compounds.
- Solvents and Reducing Agents - Solvent and reducing agent vapors are absorbed during inhalation and constitute the principal group of health hazardous substances.
- Aromatic Hydrocarbons - Benzene is highly toxic. Other common aromatic compounds such as methylbenzene and dimethylbenzene are less toxic.
- Chlorinated Hydrocarbons - The most toxic are carbon tetrachloride (degreasing agent) and methyl chloride.
- Álcoois - Methanol, propanol and butanol are extremely toxic.
- Esters - Ketones belong to a less toxic group of compounds.
Preventive Measures
- - During the painting, fire-fighting equipment should always be near at hand. At the end of each day, the cleanup rags should be dipped in water and kept in steel containers or closed drums.
- - Smoking should be forbidden to avoid flames.
- - In confined spaces, a forced ventilation system should be provided to supply air. This ventilation will guarantee that combustible gas concentration is no higher than 1% over the lowest explosion limit.
- - Operators should wear masks in closed areas.
- - All paint residues should be wiped off arms and hands with a solvent-dampened cloth (not excessive) or preferably with special cleaning liquids.
- - It is recommended that painters spread a special cream over their forearms and hands.
- - While welding or cutting with a torch, it is recommended that the gases formed be kept under the tolerance limits, according to the specifications issued by the National Safety, Hygiene and Occupational Medicine Center Foundation (FUNDACENTRO).
- - Hands should be washed before meals, and injuries immediately attended to in order to avoid infection.
- - Avoid inhaling paint dust or spray mist.
- - Sparks caused by electric equipment, abrasive tools, scaling hammers, compressors, electric pumps and lights should be completely avoided.
- - Electric light bulbs should be mounted on explosion-proof accessories.
- - Welding should be avoided while painting is being done, or while the paint layers are still damp.