Abstract
Decorative paints may evaporate hazardous emissions such as volatile organic compounds and formaldehydes. Studying the paints’ packaging showed that a great amount of decorative paints available in the German market contain low concentrations of volatile organic compounds. In fact, volatile organic compounds may cause an irritation of eyes and respiratory organs, leukaemia, lymphoma and nasal cancer. This paper presents and discusses the results of a questionnaire survey, conducted among the visitors of the trade fairs for construction products in Germany, on the awareness of possible environmental and health impact of paint products. Furthermore, this paper investigates the differences in the importance values of the ecolabels and Material Safety Data Sheets for decorative paints among females and males and respondents with and without children. In order to highlight the essential findings, the key questions were analysed within statistical t-tests. According to the results, females and males do perceive various issues regarding the availability of ecolabels for decorative paints and the use of solvent-free paints differently and put different importance values on these issues. Some results of the questionnaire survey confirm findings of the previous studies on the importance of the ecolabels. Moreover, having children influenced the behaviour of the respondents towards the significance of the Material Safety Data Sheets and using solvent-free indoor paints.
Highlights
This paper aims to investigate the importance of ecolabels for decorative paints and the importance of using solvent-free paints for the average consumer
This paper presents an evaluation of the study with the questionnaire survey that was conducted at trade fairs for construction products in Germany
The results of the questionnaire survey showed that the majority of the respondents, namely, 88%, stated the importance of an ecolabel for any construction product they used
Summary
This paper aims to investigate the importance of ecolabels for decorative paints and the importance of using solvent-free paints for the average consumer. Decorative paint products may evaporate hazardous emissions such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehydes. According to Venkatram, use of paints and organic solvents in North America caused about 31% of anthropogenic emissions of the VOCs in 1985 [4]. In 2018 and 2019, only in Los Angeles, there were about 35% to 40% of anthropogenic emissions of the productand process-related VOCs, including paints and organic solvents [6]. This is an exceptional case for the US counties
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