Does Powder Coating Contain Lead?

Powder coating is much safer than other finishes, such as liquid paint. The reason is that powder coating doesn’t contain harmful solvents.

What are the ingredients of powder coating, and does powder coating contain lead?

Is There Lead in Powder Coatings?

Lead is harmful to humans. This is the reason houses no longer have lead pipework and petrol is unleaded.

Paint used to contain lead too. There’s a whole history of lead-use in paint in Britain, dating from Victorian times up until the 2000s.

Before 1900, lead in paint and varnish was applied to Victorian buildings. It was also used in the white paint that covered decks and timber of Royal Navy ships.

Its use in buildings became widespread up until 1960. In fact, lead content was at its highest levels in paint between 1930 and 1955.

In 1963, the Paintmakers Association of Great Britain entered a voluntary agreement with the Ministry of Health to label paints containing more than 1% lead by weight.

The removal of lead in most decorative paints followed soon after this. The minimum permitted lead content was reduced to 0.5% in 1968. Finally, lead was removed from the agreement altogether in 1974.

In 1992, an EEC directive officially banned the sale and use of paint containing lead carbonate and lead sulphate. The only exceptions were its use in paints for restoring or maintaining historic buildings or works of fine art.

Lead tetroxide, or red lead, is still officially permitted in paints, but most suppliers have switched to safer alternatives, such as red oxide.

The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint wants to prevent the exposure of children to lead paint and eliminate lead paint across the world.

Powder coatings are a form of paint and an alternative to liquid paints, but they do not contain lead. They are non-toxic.

What Makes Powder Coating Non-toxic?

Powder coatings don’t contain lead, but they are made up of polymer resin, fillers, curatives and pigments. They have a low environmental impact because these ingredients are non-toxic.

The absence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in powder coatings make them a safe alternative to liquid paint.

VOCs are compounds that can become gases or vapours when they evaporate at room temperature or when fuel containing VOCs ignites. VOCs are in lots of adhesives, preservatives, cleaning substances and paints.

But they aren’t used in the manufacture of powder coatings. Powder coatings are inert, easy to dispose of and safe to transport.

They do not pose any environmental risks as they don’t give off harmful vapours or gases.

For more information about powder coating, including its many different safe applications, please contact us.