The Harried Potter

A Reader Writes The Green Guide:

Do you know about the safety of pottery paints? There are a lot of paint-your-own pottery places and my friends want to take their young children (3 and under) to make handprint tiles. I am concerned about having my child (under 1 years old) exposed to this paint. The store says it is "nontoxic," but who knows what that means these days.
Kathleen

The Green Guide Responds:

Kathleen, you are right to be concerned: Many art supplies, especially conventional pottery paints and glazes, contain toxic ingredients. Recent federal regulations and new voluntary certification standards give parents some help determining which products are safe for children. Unfortunately, the system is far from perfect and a reasonable degree of caution is still recommended.

Materials and Work Environment

Professional potters handle many potentially hazardous materials. Long-term exposure can pose serious health risks and safe work practices are essential. For children, who are especially vulnerable to environmental toxins, it's well worth the hassle of being too careful. Many of the vibrant-colored glazes contain some kind of metal or metal oxide, such as antimony, barium, beryllium, cadmium, selenium, cobalt, colemanite, copper, chromium, manganese, nickel, vanadium and zinc. Lead is also still used in some conventional glazes. When these metals are heated in a kiln the fumes can be toxic. Not only is there a risk of exposure from breathing, but the fumes condense on anything they contact. Children should not work in a room that also houses kilns, especially kilns without an adequate exhaust system and proper ventilation.

Dry clay dust contains silica and can cause respiratory problems such as dry cough emphysema and susceptibility to lung infections, so children should work with wet clay only. They should not be allowed to use glazes. Nontoxic acrylic- and tempera-based paints are available. The results won't be as spectacular, but the kids will still have fun and you can relax knowing they're safe. To reiterate, though, even if the children are using nontoxic materials, some consideration must be given to the work environment as well. Are kilns being fired in the same room that your child is working? Are conventional metal oxide glazes being used near the children's work area? Verify that not only are the materials nontoxic but that the space is nontoxic as well.

Certification

The Art & Creative Materials Institute (ACMI) is a trade association that certifies the safety of art materials. Originally called The Crayon, Water Color & Craft Institute, the ACMI began its certification program in 1940. Over the last sixty-five years, certification by the organization has not always been a reliable marker of safety. Partly this is due to our changing precepts of health and safety, though, in large part, the problem with the ACMI is that it is a self-policing apparatus of the art materials industry. Further, when the subject was initially broached by government during the sixties, federal regulations required warning labels only on those products that had been determined acute hazards. Under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act of 1966 a material was labeled nontoxic if less than half of the lab animals tested died after a single high dose. During the 1980's a more stringent set of standards were developed jointly by manufacturers, artist organizations and health care experts under the auspices of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The ACMI became the primary industry body to adopt and develop a certification system based upon the ASTM's standards.

Products bearing the AP seal of the ACMI are certified nontoxic. Products bearing the CL ("Cautionary Labeling") seal of the ACMI contain ingredients that are toxic or hazardous but can be used safely with appropriate caution. The current labeling system is certainly an improvement over its predecessor, but it is still far from perfect. The AP label does not ensure a product is wholly without unsafe ingredients. The claim is, rather, that the product is certified "to contain no materials in sufficient quantities to be toxic or injurious to humans, including children, or to cause acute or chronic health problems."

A second hurdle for consumers is the industry practice of not fully disclosing ingredients. For example, the material safety data sheet (MSDS) for American Art Clay's Matt Glazes, an AP certified pottery paint, lists no ingredients and states under Hazardous Ingredients: "No reportable quantities of hazardous ingredients are present." As consumers, then, we are left holding a product which is certified nontoxic and safe for use by children but which may or may not contain unsafe ingredients. As with personal care products, the best rule of thumb is to look for products that list ingredients (for help finding ingredients and reading MSDS sheets, see "Uncovering Product Ingredients"). And when a certified nontoxic pottery paint doesn't name its ingredients, don't use it. When you find one that does, then you can make an informed choice, even if it requires doing a little research on the ingredients that are unfamiliar.

Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., a ceramicist, industrial hygienist and president of Arts, Crafts, Theater Safety, says that children (ages twelve and under) should not use glazes at all, owing to the potential health hazards, but can safely use children's acrylic paints on fired ceramic ware and have an adult seal them with an acrylic sealer. Rossol adds, that utilitarian ceramics—mugs, bowls, and so on—in particular should not be made by children, since toxic substances may also leach out into foods and liquids.