Paints, Watchdog TV Show, Solvent known as 'VOCs

[Jim]

I'm about to paint my hallway and i remembered that a couple of years ago the tv show Watchdog done something about white paint turning yellow after a few weeks and something to do with the chemicals inside, well having done some googleing they turned out to be something called VOC's.

Can i ask does anybody know if these are still a factor in todays world, i'm thinking of going dulux or crown but it seems both of these were affected by the VOC issue, is it something i need to worry about today or has it been sorted or do i need to look for some kind of warning on the can?

Jim

[Vir Campestris]

I think you have your wires crossed. The old paints used to have all sorts of stuff in them, including Volatile Organic Chemicals, which were generally bad for the environment (and stank) - but made better paint. It's the _removal_ of these chemicals that have resulted in the yellowing.

But uk.d-i-y will give you chapter and verse.

Andy

[Andrew Gabriel]

Well, it's attempts at replacing the VOCs with other things, none of which work anywhere near as well for colour, finish, or longevity.

The yellowing is caused by the newer binder in the paint going yellow.

[Brian Gaff]

Could they not take a leaf out of the detergents book? Put in a kind of blue whitener, so the thing looks slightly blue? Brian

[Jim]

OK Thanks for that Andy I'll dive over there now

[John Rumm]

Its ok, we can already see you from here - Andy cross posted your last message ;-)