Don’t let toxic chemicals frame your next art project!

Lead in my paint? That's no happy accident.

The paint aisle in your local craft store has a variety of oil, watercolor, and acrylic paints for you to choose from. With so much variety in color, quality, and price, it can be hard to choose. While you pick your next paint, look out for hazardous solvents like: 

• Turpentine 
• Paint thinner 
• Lacquer thinner 
• Citrus solvent 
• Flammable and toxic spray adhesives 
• Pigment powders containing antimony, cadmium, lead, and nickel 
• Pastel sticks containing antimony, cadmium, lead, and nickel 
• Aqua oils and other products containing toxic driers  

Hazardous paint supplies can affect your lungs, skin, and eyes. Here are some safety tips to consider: 

• Wear chemical-resistant gloves when using solvents and spray adhesives. 
• Wear a mask or respirator when sanding dry paint. 
• Switch to water-based materials to reduce solvent vapor exposure. 
• Position your painting station near a window or open door for better air flow. 
• Keep containers, solvents, and thinners covered when not in use. 
• Avoid solvents with words like chloride, methylene chloride, hexane, toluene, and xylene. 

You can also use alternative painting supplies like:  

• Water-soluble paints 
• Water-washable oils or light oils like baby oil or walnut oil 

For more information about how to determine if your art supplies include hazardous ingredients, visit the Washington State Department of Health page on safer art supplies and storage.

For an easy at-home paint project with – or without – the children in your life, try making kid-friendly nontoxic paint using household ingredients like food coloring, flour, water, and baking soda.  Easy-to-follow tutorials and recipes are available online. Here are some recipes we suggest: 

• How to make your own washable homemade paint for play 
• Non-toxic DIY paint recipe for kids 
• Homemade gluten free finger paint 
• Learn more about what art supplies you can toss out at your nearest King County Hazardous Waste facility by visiting our household hazardous products library.

Hazardous supplies can dull your jewelry making  

Jewelry enthusiasts and metalsmiths may already be aware of the health risks that come with the hobby. This craft uses hazardous chemicals and products that can affect your lungs, eyes, and skin by using items like cleaning and degreasing solvents, tarnish removers and sealants, solder and flux, patinas, and cyanide electroplating compounds. It’s more than metal, beads, and string. These hazardous materials are flammable, toxic, and, in some cases, may cause cancer.  

According to the Washington State Department of Health, it’s important to wear protective clothing like chemical-resistant gloves and goggles when working with metals. Place items like kilns and soldering stations close to windows, open doors for better air flow, and use chemical specific respiratory protection and exhaust ventilation.  

Product alternatives you should consider include: 

• Lead-free and antimony-free solder 
• Mercury-free metal amalgam 
• Fluoride-free flux like boric acid or fluoroborate compounds 
• Diluted sodium bisulfate, as a less toxic pickle 
• Pre-mixed, lead-free enamels  
• Arsenic-free and cadmium-free enamel frit 
• Cyanide-free electroplating techniques 
• Liver of sulfur gel instead of pebbles 
• EPA Safer Choice alternative degreasers 

Corrosive cleaners, patinas, and other chemical compounds are considered hazardous waste. Dispose of them properly at one of King County’s hazardous waste facilities. Learn more about what jewelry and metalsmithing supplies you can dispose of at your nearest King County Hazardous Waste facility by visiting our household hazardous products library.  

 
Don’t let your clay slip on asbestos 

Ceramics can be a great way to de-stress and create beautiful art pieces and dishware. But they also use hazardous materials that can be harmful to your health and the planet. Ceramic supplies that can have a direct impact on your health include silica dust from dry clay, asbestos in clay slip, glazes, and stains. There are also toxic metals in the clay itself, including antimony, barium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, selenium, and vanadium.  

The Washington State Department of Health recommends that ceramic hobbyists wear goggles when kiln-firing. Specifically, choose goggles with lenses that block infrared (wavelength of 600 to 6,000 nanometers) to reduce the risk of cataracts and other possible damage to your eyes.  

The Department of Health also recommends nitrile gloves when throwing clay if you have sensitive skin or are allergic to nickel or copper. They also recommend that you use pre-wetted glazes and clay, and protect your lungs when mixing dry ingredients, firing your kiln, and pub milling, to reduce the chance of inhaling silica dust. 

More purchasing advice includes: 

• Purchase pre-wetted clay. 
• Purchase glaze in a slurry form rather than as a dry powder.  
• Use fewer toxic glazes that use iron, calcium, sodium, and potassium.  
• Avoid cadmium, barium, selenium, and arsenic. 
• For more information about how to identify toxic materials in your ceramic supply, watch this video from the Washington State Department of Health.  

When it’s time to throw away your ceramic supplies, don’t glaze over these tips: 

• Reuse unfired clay.
• Recycle plastic and glass containers once you use up all the material inside.
• Safely dispose of pottery and unused ceramic glaze that contain toxic materials like lead, cadmium, or barium at one of our four King County hazardous waste drop-off facilities.
• Learn more about what pottery supplies you can throw out by visiting our household hazardous products library.