Air Pollution Damage to Exterior Household Paints

Abstract

Two types of white exterior household paints - latex and oil base - were exposed for periods of up to 30 months at nine air monitoring sites in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Climatic and air quality data were recorded during the exposure period and were subjected to a rigorous evaluation to eliminate recording errors and to estimate missing values. Deterioration of the paints was measured during the exposure period by determining the rate of surface erosion. The latex paint had the highest erosion rate. Erosion rates of both paints were higher for southern exposures than for northern exposures indicating an effect of sunlight. The rate data were evaluated with respect to the possible effects of time-of-wetness, wind speed, temperature, and levels of total gaseous sulfur compounds, total gaseous oxides of nitrogen, and oxidants. Regression analysis indicated that of the ambient gaseous pollutants only oxides of nitrogen correlated significantly with erosion of the latex paint. The erosion of both paint films strongly correlated with the time of surface wetness. A possible effect of ozone on the latex paint was masked by strong covariances between ozone and temperature and between ozone and oxides of nitrogen.