Identifying Harmful Varnish and Stain Ingredients
Hi folks,
Just added new floors on top of silicon vapor barrier.
Chemically sensitive and went for no-VOC stain + varnish.
After 2 weeks, I can still feel burning in my nose.
Inside conditions during the period: Temp: low 50s, inside humidity 62%, fans circulating air in and out. did a bout of heating for a week at 72 while maintaining some ventilation.
Going through the ingredients list, trying to understand what components could be causing that reaction and how long before they fully evaporate or get neutralized somehow.
Please advise, Thank you.
SDS + Ingredients of https://ecospaints.net/woodshield-semi-gloss-varnish
– 2-Ethylhexyl acrylate
– Ammonium hydroxide
– Polyoxyethylene monooctadecyl ether
| Ingredients | ||
| FUNCTION | INGREDIENT | DESCRIPTION |
| Vehicle | Water | H2O |
| Binder | Acrylic | Flexible elastic polymer |
| Ethylene oxide urethane | Used to sterilize medical equipment | |
| Defoamer | Mineral Oil | Used in moisturizers |
| Preservative | Sodium Salt | Used in shampoo |
| Rheology Modifier | Modified Paraffin | Wax product |
| Surfactant | Ethoxylated Acetylenic | Wetting agent for inks |
SDS + ingredients list of https://ecospaints.net/woodshield-wood-stain
– 2-Ethylhexyl acrylate
– Sodium hypochlorite
– BHT
| FUNCTION | INGREDIENT | DESCRIPTION |
| Vehicle | Water | H2O |
| Binder | Acrylic | Flexible elastic polymer |
| Corrosion Inhibitor | Sodium Benzoate | Used in food pickling |
| Defoamer | Mineral Oil | Used in moisturizers |
| pH Stabilizer | Ammonium Hydroxide | Used to treat water |
| Preservative | Sodium Nitrite | Food additive |
| Sodium Salt | Used in shampoo | |
| Surfactant | Fluorosurfactant | Used in eyeshields and gloves |
| Thickener | Polysaccharide | Food additive |
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Replies
Hi FumedOut,
I posed your question to building biologist and founder of My Chemical-Free House Corrine Segura. My hope is she will weigh in here.
Thank you.
Hi, You can't tell what something offgasses by looking at the ingredients - unless you were an expert chemist. The ingredients all come together to form a chemical reaction. ECOS products have been measured to be 0 VOC at 2 weeks times in more normal conditions.
You may want to talk to them about offgassing times at that colder temperature and see if there were any errors in how it was applied as well.
I have worked with chemically sensitive folks who are extremely sensitive and react to a paint for much longer than the time that it should have in theory reached 0 VOC status.
It's also highly likely in these cases there is something else going on. With my clients, I often see people who have just moved into a new to them house and did not spend enough time it in before starting renos to find out if they were reacting to other elements in the house.
It often happens that the contractors used something else. New baseboards (MDF), caulking around flooring-baseboard or at the top of the baseboard, cleaning up caulking with solvents, using other cleaning products on the job, etc.
Thank you for your answer,
I will get in touch with the Ecos folks.
For context, this work is a remediation to the situation I described in the following article: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/what-vapor-barrier-to-encapsulate-sound-insulation-materials
So yes, there's a ton of stuff under these new floors + vapor barrier we were reacting to. This is an attempt to encapsulate the stuff and prevent propagation in our unit.
There's always the possibility that the encapsulation was not successful and the fumes are still permeating through the new material or other avenues (walls drywall?)
Best,
J
Ah I see, yes it is almost certainly the other materials and not the ECOS that you are reacting to.
Thank you for the insights, Corrine. There are so many considerations, and it's valuable to be aware of and reminded to think about all the different variables.