HAZARDS OF PAINT SPILLAGES / RESIDUES ....

Paint as a substance is composed of many raw materials like binders, pigments, solvents and other many additives depending upon the end-use and application requirement. All these raw materials whether in organic form or inorganic form carry significant workplace hazards There are many different activities the paint supply chain line, right from the paint processing to user application like

1)    Paint Processing/production process : 

2)   Packing process.

3)   Distribution process (storage, handling and transportation process).

4)   Paint application process.

5)   Paint cans/residue disposal process.

During all these activities Spillages/Residual-remains carry significant environmental and health hazards, if proper controls are not effectively implemented to minimize or eliminate hazards, they would significantly contribute to losses and environmental/health hazards.  

The hazards are encountered on many fronts like

··      Exposure to VOC’s creates significant health hazards and environmental hazards.

·      Spillages getting mixed up with stormwater drains during large spillages, during spill cleaning and also during the cleaning process of painting accessories and polluting the water bodies.

·      Spillages during maintenance activities

·      Land pollution due to Solidified Paint (either due to improper/long storage/Process deviated product) getting mixed with domestic/municipal solid waste.

·      Fire hazards especially for solvent-based paints during long storage where leakages tend to go unnoticed creating potential fire risk as solvents easily get ignited due to lower flashpoints.

·      Pressurization and bulging of filled tins and cans due to improper storage leading to the risk of toxic vapors getting released and result in an explosion if vapors are  within the flammable range  

·      Exposure of harmful dust generated during surface preparation like old paint removal, scraping and rust removal and inhalation of toxic vapors which can cause both potential long term chronic and short term acute effects.

·      Improper handling and disposal of scrapped used paint tins a significant contributor to the environment hazard

In order to control and minimize/eliminate spill hazards a hazard assessment to be taken up at each step to understand the impact of spillages and create effective controls with respect to storage, handling, maintenance, cleaning and paint handling, brushing/spraying operations and effective disposal of used cans as per local laws 

Article by PJ Mohan

Sr.Faculty, NIFS