"Cadmium Crises" Topic

More for you European true hue paint lovers than anyone else.

link

Sometimes it seems the only reason for the EU's existence is to ban stuff…..

For years the cigarette manufacturers said cigarettes didn't harm you. Maybe someone in the EU does know whats what.

Still pining for luminous radium paint on your watch face Cerdic?

I think the purpose of the blog is to get as many signatories as possible on the provided link to stop the outright ban of cadmium in artist paints.

Cadmium is used in many reds and yellows we all use in the hobby.

Pining for a bit of common sense. When was the last time you heard of someone dying of 'artists paint containing cadmium' poisoning?

It just seems like yet more unnecessary bureaucracy.

I'm hoping it is Cerdic, and the council will listen to reason.

And yet the alternatives they'll force the artists to use are more toxic….

What about the Euro-sausage?

Well I can see the EU's point on this one. Heavy metal poisoning is not neccesarily something that just happens overnight, the damage is done with long term accumulation.

A lot of the whaling catch for example is unusable due to mercury accumulation. (Which you would think would make the Japanese and other whaling nations either A: stop catching intelligent mammals or B: be at the forefront of heavy metal clean up. They are not, Humans are pretty dumb sometimes)

Everyone disposing of small amounts of cadmium = an overall large build up.

Whats the answer? Well I don't know. As Zephyr said a lot of the "alternatives" are just as if not more toxic, and they also include other heavy metals and the cycle will begin anew until we are all forced to paint in black and white. Except that they banned lead white so black it is.

…..said a lot of the "alternatives" are just as if not more toxic, and they also include other heavy metals……

But is this true? Both Golden and Vallejo make "non-toxic" non-cadmium red and yellow pigments. Does anyone actually know what the pigments are?

Actually, for most non-toxic acrylic/oil colors, they do not contain heavy metals. The vast majority are organic colorants, and a few contain copper. The vast majority of hobbyist paints use synthetic organic pigments. They are far cheaper than the metal containing ones.

Diarylide yellow/orange/red is the most common color for organic yellow/orange/red. I'd rather eat a tube of that than cadmium.

Most organic pigments are transparent/translucent though, so to make them opaque and insoluble ( so they can be ground and dispersed in binder ), they are formed into "Aluminum lake" pigments, and often admixed with small particles of zinc or titanium oxide to improve opacity.

Heavy metal pigments tend to have better covering power, but over long periods of time ironically can be less light fast than SOME organic pigments, especially lead white which can turn transparent. Other metal oxides can react with chemicals in the air and change shade as well.

Go to the artist oil segment. Pick up a tube of True Cadmium Yellow, and the non-Cadmium Yellow analogue. Note the price, and the relative toxicity warnings.

PDF link

Vallejo use cadmium in nearly all of their reds and yellows.

In any event, I don't lick my paint brushes anyway…. ;-)

Well…not while they still have paint on them, anyway … :-)

PDF link

Vallejo use cadmium in nearly all of their reds and yellows.

Thanks for the info. According to the MSDS they contain 5 micrograms per cubic meter of paint. That is 5 millionths of a gram per 1000 liters. I'll let you figure out how much that is in a single Vallejo bottle.

Estimated average intake of cadmium is about 8 to 39 micrograms per day in Europe and North America to about 60 to 113 micrograms in Japan. Why the difference? The amount of fish eaten. Smoking is the main source of cadmium for most people.

This is why Vallejo gets to label their paint non-toxic. I suspect you have more to fear from your fish sticks than your brush licking.

Pining for a bit of common sense. When was the last time you heard of someone dying of 'artists paint containing cadmium' poisoning?

It just seems like yet more unnecessary bureaucracy.

I grant you the first point. I guess it's the mining, refinement, industrial exposure and industrial pollution (especially air and water pollution) that is the main concern, not the poisoning of miniature painters.

And here I was hoping this thread had something to do with Gelt, the assassin from Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) and his strange regard for the value of carcinogenic heavy metals (see here at about 45 minutes in):

YouTube link

Awesome film, by the way, and Gelt the laconic, nihilistic assassin was IMHO, the coolest character. Robert Vaughan here, essentially reprising his role from the magnificent seven.