FINISH LINE

We all need paint. Our houses, our cars and, of course, our boats are covered in the stuff. Sometimes we apply it ourselves and sometimes we employ professionals to do so, but either way we want to know that it will look good and that it is of a high enough quality to protect wood from rotting, steel or aluminium from corroding and GRP from osmosis, and to minimise the fouling of underwater surfaces. But it is an inescapable fact that many paints can have serious consequences for the environment and for people’s health, not only during their manufacture and application, but throughout their lifetime of protection and even when they are ultimately removed and disposed of. As time goes on, regulatory bodies introduce new rules to diminish these consequences, but does that mean that paints are becoming less effective, or is the hard work of the paint manufacturing companies’ research chemists keeping up?

The biggest culprits are probably traditional antifoulings. Not only do they emit VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds which are present in solvents) into the atmosphere during their manufacture and application (as do all other solvent-based paints) but they also leach biocides into the water throughout their useful lifetimes. “A traditional polishing