Toxic Materials
Wolverine it would be my pleasure.
On the surface the VOC's regulations mandated by california and southcoast air quality management (and many others) are primarily in place to regulate low level Ozone (smog) The solvents used in either oil or water based products are the key to smog control. The amount of VOC's emitted from architectural coatings is 23M tons per day or the equivelent of 1.6M cars driving on the road.
VOC's are responsible for things like asthma, lung and heart disease and other health affects, but are also related to global warming, climate change and immediate environmental concerns.
Toxins by definition include VOC's however VOC's do not include all Toxins. The most blatent toxins are carcinogens, which for the most part are not considered VOC's.
Aura (matte) contains 100g/l of Voc the equivalent of the weight of approx 60 nickels per gallon and additionally contains Carcinogens.
The problem with taking out VOC's is the loss of performance. Most Green paints pale in performance to their solvent based competitors. It took over 6 years for us to develop a product that not only has no VOC's, but No Carcinogens or other toxins as well. The only reason we found this enlightening (other than the obvious) are the performance factors, we perform better than traditional waterborne paints. When I say better I really mean way better. It is a revolutionary step for the paint industry and we are really excited about it.
Back to the Toxic colorant question, we use non toxic colorants that are not made at our facility, but I will have to get back to you with there exact composition as I am not in the office today, feel free to send me your company info so we can take a look (always looking at new stuff). We will not allow dealers or others to use toxic colorants as we believe it is misleading to the consumer. A side note, the GOVT has allowed paint manufacturers to print the VOC levels not inclusive of colorant as every base and every color could have a different composition, impossible to regulate unless you had NO toxins in your colorant system. so as you read other cans you will not know the true amount of VOC's and toxins because there are most likely more in the colorant. This again is not true for Mythic.
Your last comment about "green" companies is dead on, there are a tremendous amount of products that are "pretending" to be green. The truth is that until regulation dictates what that is, we will have to watch out for them, some of them have the right social aspects but are really lacking in performance. We call them yogurt paints, they look good in the can, but I wouldnt smear it on my wall.
As for Mythic, we are a real company, with technologies developed in the University of Southern Mississippi. We have a huge patent portfolio and technology background. We have the capabilities to produce volume at a national level. I can't comment on our base technology as it is proprietary.
Sorry for the disertation, but I hope I answered most of it.
