oil paints contain lead from china?

Question

i bought some oil paints from ebay and when i got them they have markings from china. do all oil paints contain lead? is there a website where you can check to see if your product contains lead? it has a sticker on it that says "approved product conformed to EN71-3 ASTM D-4236" does this mean there is no lead in it?

Answer 1

I know of no quality oil paint by a recognizable maker of artist's oil paints who have their paint made in China. Artist Oil Paints are either made in Europe or the United States. Rembrandt, Grumbaucher, M. Graham, etc. are all made from pigments that are produced in the United States and Germany or France. Winsor-Newton is still hand made in England.

Are you talking about house paint instead of artist's paint?

If you did buy artist oil paints that are made in China I would seriously doubt their quality. Can you give us the name of the company that manufactured your paint.

None of these other popular brands are made in China either:

Utrecht
Daler-Rowney
Gamblin
Old Holland
Permalba
Walter Foster
Reeves

Edit; None of the above mentioned quality artist oil paints contain lead that I could find from my research but here is an interesting side note: Up to just a few years ago Old Holland (the oldest continuous maker pf artist paints) was still selling their paint in soft lead tubes when everyone else had long switched to either plastic or aluminum tubes.

Answer 2

I've become more aware of the Chinese products since the pet food disaster. Not long after that it was revealed that many vitamin supplements produced in China were also contaminated. A few instances could be considered "accidental" but so many examples of lead poisoning and unsafe electrical products coming from China ought to wake people up that something evil is coming from that country. Stores that sell the cheap sh** that China supplies should be avoided. Also avoid shopping at IKEA which has a ton of merchandise from that country. Start reading labels for the country of origin and avoid buying goods made in China. Spend a little more money to get a better product made here in the USA. Great question even if it is a bit too long...

Answer 3

Paint sold in this country should not contain lead or cadmium.
Although I believe lead white does contain lead and should be used sparingly. The chief complaint when cad yellow was taken off the market was that the color could not be duplicated and maybe it can't but I have made it without it. I'm sure we should all take into consideration chemicals that would be harmful to us in our paints and our solvents. . After all who knows what caused illnesses in artists in the past. Maybe something in his pigments caused Van Gogh to cut a portion of his own ear off. In any case I would stick with paint of a brand that I recognized like Rembrandt, Windsor and Newton. You can order student grade paints from Utrecht in Chicago that are quite good and not that expensive. Check it out , I'm sure they have a web site.

Answer 4

Both contemporary artists Helen Van Wyk and Bob Ross both died of cancer. I think more studies need to be done on health safety in oil painting.

Answer 5

Here is the location for Windsor Newton's health data sheets.
http://www.winsornewton.com/main.aspx?PageID=44

See if you can find the manufacturer's site and if they have health data sheets... most manufacturers have that today.

ADDENDUM: trying to find the safety standards organizations

http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/DATABASE.CART/D.htm?L+mystore+dvxu9231+1198137171

page below is the def. for "D-4236"
http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/DATABASE.CART/REDLINE_PAGES/D4302.htm?E+mystore

Here is another organization that you might look at:

http://www.acminet.org/index.htm

Looks like this might be the best place to look:
Health & Safety in the Arts
A Searchable Database of
Health & Safety Information for Artists
http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/arthazards/home.html

Answer 6

extremely tough step. check out with bing and yahoo. just that can assist!