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How hazardous is your spot marker paint?
With an estimated 10 million cans of spot marker paint flooding the Australian market every year, it’s critical for workers in civil construction and similar industries to ensure they are using the safest possible paints.
Many popular spot marker paints currently for sale contain hazardous chemicals including xylene and acetone – potent solvents that can cause everything from headaches and dizziness to more serious effects such as reproductive damage, liver and kidney damage, respiratory impairment – even cancer.
Xylene is so hazardous and so widespread that NSW Workplace Health & Safety has ranked it 9th in a list of 100 priority chemicals, based on toxicity and exposure potential. NSW WHS aims to achieve a 30% reduction in exposure by 2022, and it’s likely that the regulator will soon be tightening legislation and controls around these toxic chemicals.
With such large volumes of spot marker paint in use in Australia today, how many workers are potentially at risk, and what can be done to reduce the potential health impacts?
How to reduce the risk
It’s important to eliminate these risks as far as practicable by using paints and solvents with less toxic ingredients, or using different work methods so that workers limit their exposure.
PPE is always a last resort in the hierarchy of hazard controls, but if you do have to use equipment such as a respirator, ensure it has the right filters and cartridges for the task, and that employees have all had their respirators fit tested by a professional.
What’s the best spot marker paint?
You might think we’re biased, but the data speaks for itself: Soppec spot marker paint is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to worker safety.
We compared the Soppec safety data sheets with those of other popular competitor brands, and it’s clear to see that Soppec Fluo TP and Soppec ProMarker are a cut above.
Xylene and acetone free, with absolutely minimal hazard statements, the Soppec range of French made paints are not just safer, they’re excellent quality too.
‘But I trust my current brand – I’ve never head of Soppec!’
The name might not be as familiar as some other popular paint brands, but Soppec has been manufacturing in France since the early sixties. Soppec paint products were an immediate hit in the construction and public works sectors in Europe, thanks to their high-performance xylene-free paints and innovative patented safety caps. The company now produces the equivalent of 25 million aerosols per year.
Soppec Fluo TP and Soppec Promarker, both excellent products for civil and construction applications, are available to buy in Australia exclusively from Jaybro.
Not only is it safer – Soppec sprays on brilliant, opaque colour
Soppec spot marker paint offers excellent coverage and strong, bright colour on a range of surfaces including grass, dirt, gravel, wood, concrete, asphalt, bitumen, brick and metal. That means it’s perfect for many common marking tasks that civil contractors face.
We urge our customers currently using competitor brands to review the SDS and see if their paints contain xylene or acetone, and come with hazard warning statements such as ‘suspected of causing cancer’.
If so, it might be time to try Soppec spot marker paints and see for yourself how you can achieve reliable, high-quality spraying and dazzling bright colour, in a much safer formulation.
Find out more
Acetone and xylene have documented workplace exposure limits under Safe Work Australia. These are currently under review, however at the time of writing, the following workplace exposure limits are in effect:
Maximum eight hour time weighted average (TWA): 500ppm | 1185mg/m3
Maximum short term exposure limit (STEL): 1000ppm | 2375mg/m3
Maximum eight hour time weighted average (TWA): 80ppm | 350mg/m3
Maximum short term exposure limit (STEL): 150ppm | 655mg/m3
For more information refer to your local workplace safety authority, your WHS representative or call the Poisons Information Centre on 13 11 26 (Australia) or 0800 764 766 (New Zealand).
