Oil Paint Safety: Need Advice?
I usually paint with the cheaper stuff, but I came across some real nice Grumbacher Pre-tested oil paint and bought it. It was the first time I bought paint with health labels. Most contain lead, and the ones that don't still say that California thinks it may cause cancer / do not spray apply.
My question is, how safe do I need to be? Should I wear gloves and avoid all contact? Does my area need to be ventilated? Or should I just refrain from using the paint as a condiment?
Artists have been using oil paint for hundreds of years. As far as I know none have ever gotten cancer simply from using oil paints properly.
The warning labels are on the tubes because, if ingested into your body, you could get lead sickness, a minor form of poisoning. No remotely intelligent adult or even younger artist would eat oil paint from a tube. But a baby might try doing so because babies will put just about anything in their mouths. This is why leaded pencils are no longer used in elementary schools because young students used to suck on the pencil tips. The warnings are for child safety issues.
You will not get lead poisoning, or cancer, from touching oil paint or getting any on your skin by accident. That is, as long as you don't lick your fingers to clean them or shoot any paint into your veins. Even if small amounts of artist oil paint was absorbed into your skin by accident you are in no real danger of ill effects. It would take a prolonged, continued abuse of the lead in oil paints over many years before you would see a negative result.
As to fumes, yes, there are fumes when using oil based paints and if certainly wouldn't hurt for you to paint with some form of ventilation, at least a fan, in the room.
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