One aspect of the move towards water-based coatings is that we often read and hear about how harmful the aromatic hydrocarbon and ketone solvents are to the human population and the environment as a whole. However, we hear very little about the toxicological aspects of some very popular water-soluble solvents called glycol ether's. Glycol ether's are ethoxylated alcohols and range in molecular composition with mono-, di-, tri- groupings. Not all glycol ether's are the same, or even of the same alcohol groups. Some glycol's are ethylene or E-Series derivatives, while others are propylene or P-Series derivatives.
The more harmful of the two groups are the E-Series glycols. One such E-Series glycol is 2-Butoxyethanol, or better known as butyl cellosolve. Recently, the Canadian Government enacted a ruling to limit and control the levels of 2-BE in consumer products, including water-based paints and coatings. Here is a link to the Environment Canada web site that illustrates the proposal and ruling:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/nopp/DOCS/consult/2-Butoxyethanol/en/index.cfm
2-Butoxyethanol is used in a wide array of industrial and household paints, cleaning solvents, adhesives and fabric finishes as the primary co-solvent due to its slow evaporation rate and excellent solubility in water. The down side of butyl cell is that it messes with your kidneys and liver, causing adverse hematologic changes as well as metabolic acidosis in dosages much lower then other ethoxylated alcohols. Included with the hematological concerns are adverse effects on the human reproductive system. To review the US EPA IRIS Toxicological Review for 2-BE, click on the assigned EPA link and enter 2-butoxyethanol into the IRIS search engine. http://www.epa.gov/iris
0 comments:
Post a Comment