Question about paint

[itsgarbageday]

Hi everyone,

I was curious about a certain situation that happened to me and I was looking for some feedback.

I have a room full of audio equipment and computers. It just so happens that while I was away on vacation someone painted the room. The room was not ventilated, nor anything inside covered while painting.

The equipment seems to be working OK, however I was curious if paint fumes (or whatever is released in the air as paint dries) can bind or damage electronic components. I don't know what the paint solvent is exactly but I do believe the paint is latex-based.

Any ideas? Is this even an issue for electronics/computers?

Thank you

[shredhead]

Latex

Don't worry. If it was oil paint, then your stuff would of stank for a while, but if you say it's latex then it's ok. Just air it out a bit. They wouldn't make condoms outta that stuff if it wasn't safe, right?

[itsgarbageday]

Hi shredhead, thank you for your reply. Please accept my un-timely gratitude.

I was wondering about the effect of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on electronics. Certain paints, particularly the ones that are for outdoor use or considered 'high quality' indoor paint, have binding agents and chemicals in them that help the paint adhere and form evenly on the surface painted, as well as protect against moisture and water. Ammonia is often one of the ingredients in paint, and there are various others. VOCs are what is emitted as the paint dries and is responsible for the smell, as well as safety hazards for inhalation.

I've read up that VOCs are "Constituents that will evaporate at their temperature of use and which, by a photochemical reaction, will cause atmospheric oxygen to be converted into potential smog-promoting tropospheric (ground level) ozone under favorable climatic conditions." I've also read that VOCs will sink in air at normal room temperatures, accumulating at ground level.

I hope I am not too anal about all this, I am just curious what effects, if any, they would have on printed circuit boards and computers. Certainly the ammonia cannot be good. I'm no chemist, I have no idea how things react with each other and the point at which these chemicals become inert.

I know I'm probably obsessed about this… I'm just itching for an answer.

[Enzo]

You and your human body manage to survive with this in the air for a time. Your Stereo and TV sets seem to work. The car stereo and the computer under the hood out there seem to work in the extremes of temperature, humidity, and the smog and pollutants in the air. Mixers and processors and amplifiers live night after night in the club environment where they get just layered in nicotine film and god alone knows what else. The moment an amp comes into my shop, I can tell if it gigs in bars or not just from the smell wafting off the amp. Talk about volatiles.

You smell these volatiles in the parts per million. The actual amount of stuff in the air is tiny. This won't hurt your gear at all.

[Chuck H]

Having worked in the architechtual coatings industry my entire life I can assure you that there is no risk of harm to your electronics due to exposure to paint fumes. Finishes can sometimes be altered. For example, a new lacquer finish exposed to a high ammonia latex paint fume can turn prematurely yellow, as it would naturally over a longer time. But once the chemical has done it's deed the danger is over. That's why they are called "volatile". These fumes evaporate almost entirely. The solvents that most PCBs are washed in are much worse than any airborn fumes from any standard architectual coating. I promise. Contrary to your concept of the situation I'll bet six beer American that even using very sophisticated test equipement there is no detectable trace of paint solvent in your electronics after thirty days. Even in extreme circumstances (my project amps are stacked in my garage next to my paint shop) "I" have never noticed any problems due to fume exposure. I suppose if you were to soak amplifier parts in certain solvents that could be a problem. But unless your painters were spraying paint (aerosolizing the solvent itself) and not covering up your gear (which of course they would) then your electronics were not exposed to the whole solvent, but rather only the most volitile part of the it. Which evaporates away just as it evaporates from the paint film as it dries.

HTH

Chuck

[Bill Moore]

Some folks are more sensitive to smell than others, and even have ill feelings because of the smell. I remember back in the day going to someone's house after the gig, with wood smoke, and pot smoke wafting through the house in a haze. I would get a cigarette out and someome,(who was usually smoking pot), would complain that they were "allergic" to cigarette smoke. I would point out the haze in the house, but that was "different".

[Enzo]

That's true. I don't like cigarettes, and I don't like pot, but I have tried both, and even inhaled. In my humble estimation, pot, at least from a joint, burns hot, but is fairly mild, not a throat irritant so much. Cigarettes in contrast tend to smoke a lot cooler (temperature wise) but the smoke is MUCH harsher.

Get me going in the kithcen burning burgers on the stove, and there is that haze of beef grease with a touch of olive oil wafting through the air. Since any time I cook beef, I am probably also cooking onions and jalapenos or serranos, the hot pepper vapors are added to the mix. That can be irritating up close.

Maybe I ought to get a range hood...

[Chuck H]

I am probably also cooking onions and jalapenos or serranos

Aaahhh... A man after my own heart. I actually prefere my peppers raw most of the time. But grilled jalapenos are great. Serranos are my usual go to pepper because of their predictability. Jalapenos can range from very mild to very hot, but that can be fun too. It scares some people that we eat peppers but I actually believe that there are health benefits when eaten in moderation.

Chuck

[Enzo]

Amen on consistent heat. I like serranos better for flavor too, but I like the jalapenos a lot too. But I agree, the serranos are consistent in their heat, while the jalapenos are all over the map, even within the same crop. SOme are pretty zippy while some are more or less little pointy bell peppers. When cooking, any place an onion will go, a hot pepper will go too, so that's what I do. I love them raw too, and often munch raw ones while cooking their brothers.

A favorite snack of mine is toasted english muffin, spread with peanut butter (chunky). I discovered long ago I likes a sprinkle of onion powder on that too. But I usually have a few raw serranos with the muffin.

I don't care much for habaneros. Not because of the heat, but I don;t care for that flavor, which reminds me a little of curry somehow. I like curry, but not when I am cooking peppers.

[Chuck H]

I do like habaneros, but I don't eat them much because of the heat. I'm not the most macho chilli pepper eater around. I'll do two or three serranos with my meal on average, sometimes lunch AND dinner a few days a week. Even at that moderation my system tells me to slow down on occasion. But you just can't get real pepper flavor without the heat. It's like non alcoholic beer or decaf coffee, something is just missing.

I once met a young guy at one of my favorite taquerias in San Jose, Ca. He was at the condement bar pulling the stems off the serranos and packing them on his opened burrito. About twenty five or thirty of them. I said "Some like it hot, eh?" and his eyes glazed over as he told me "I just can't get enough". It can really be mildly addictive if the bug bites you. That was about eight years ago. And I sometimes wonder how he's doing. There can be health consequences to consuming too much capsaisin.

Chuck

P.S. Another good snack is Jalapenos cut in half, roasted briefly under the broiler and then stuffed with cheddar cheese and put back under the broiler until bubbly. Follow with ice cream because ten of those will definitely give you the "Mexican tooth ache" (as my friend and I call it).

[Enzo]

When I eat too much hot pepper, it ain't my mouth burning that worries me. it is when it comes out the other end. "Now why am I burning down there?" Oh right, yesterday's dinner.

Gotta have heat? I don;t know. Plenty of flavor in a nice red bell papper with zero heat. I can taste my serranos fine. I devein my hot peppers, not because I want them cooler, but because I don;t want all that fibrous crap in my food. No one leaves the insides in a bell pepper.


I used to do competitive chili cookoffs.

[txstrat]

it ain't my mouth burning that worries me. it is when it comes out the other end.

That's right. Sometimes my guts feel like turning upside down too.
It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it...

[Enzo]

Not my gut either. When I eat too many hot peppers, the... uh... exit port... gets a burning sensation the4 next day.

[txstrat]

That's what I mean. The "exit", but sometimes even my gut too. Guess we better change topic.

[bluzmn]

I myself don't like hot peppers and such; I think eating should be a sensuous experience, not S&M! But I did read somewhere that eating extremely hot foods causes a release of endorphins; that might explain the glazed look on the guy at the taqueria.