My uninformed and perhaps wrong opinion.  Years ago we worked as a waste disposal contractor with a VA rehab center.  As James Saccardo outlined, cadmium yellow (as in Van Gogh’s paintings Starry Night and Irises were created with an EPA hazardous waste (cadmium).  The artists working with disabled vets were big on vibrant colors (cadmium yellow) but the safety and environmental staff  had big problems with use of and disposal of these pigments.  We did the waste disposal work with existing RCRA-wastes but don’t know the solution for future work.  There may be alternatives but I don’t know what they are.

Greetings to all,

I am interested in hearing any opinions or any measures taken by art studios to refrain or prevent the use of heavy metal (i.e. RCRA 7 metals) pigments in art studios.

In an undergraduate painting studio, they have been using reds and yellows that contain cadmium and/or cadmium seleniosulfide. Cadmium and selenium are both RCRA metals. Some years ago, I recognized that the spent tubes contained a significant amount of residual paint and testing revealed that when discarded, these quasi empty tubes did not pass TCLP and were thirty times over the regulatory limit.

These paints (linseed oil based) are purchased by students taking the course at the direction of the Faculty member. There is no mention of the toxicity level or that there are cadmium free alternatives that were not available several years ago. Students purchase, use, and abandon or discard the paint in the art lab. Heavy metal hazards are not discussed and paintings produced with these paints may be taken home, etc. The thinners that are used do not flash, but I am guessing with all of the reds and yellows, it may also carry D codes.

I have looked into the alternatives and they do not contain any RCRA metals, although they do tradeoff for other metals such as zinc and beryllium.

I have approached the department and asked them to prohibit paints containing heavy metals and only use alternative paints only to receive the response that the alternatives (that the industry has worked so hard to produce at the same cost) do not have the  “tinting power” as the cadmium containing pigments. Yes, so I am sitting here wondering how can I convince them not to use heavy metal pigments in a 100 level undergraduate course (at the risk of having less tinting power) and that the health of the college community as a whole is more important than tinting strength.

Therefore, I’d be interested in hearing any success stories for an artist program that prohibits paint pigments with heavy metals or compelling justification for requiring the department to switch to alternatives.

Thanks,

James (not an artist)

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