3 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Paint Fumes
Home Air Purification the Safe, Cheap and Easy Way After Painting
Jul 6, 2009
A new coat of paint can make a house look like a million bucks… and smell like a chemical laboratory. Not only do paint fumes smell awful, they're also bad for health, with toxic ingredients like formaldehyde, ammonia, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Fortunately, there are cheap and simple ways to get rid of fresh paint fumes.
Chopped Onions Absorb Paint Smells
Onions are a painter's best friend. Not only do they pull smells and toxic chemicals out of the air, they're cheap, readily available and easy to find. Unless the paint or renovation smell is especially bad, it usually takes just a few onions to clear out odors and purify air.
To prepare onions to absorb paint fumes:
- Select large, fresh onions – about 2 onions per room that has been painted.
- Chop up the onions into small pieces – the more surface area, the better.
- Spread the chopped up onions out on plates or thick cardboard and place them in the freshly painted room.
- Leave the onions for 1-2 days, or until the pieces are shriveled up and dry. Replace with more onions if the room still smells of paint.
- Air out the room to clear the onion smell, which should dissipate quickly (especially compared to paint fumes).
Diffuse Essential Oils to Destroy Toxic Fumes
Unlike perfumes or room deodorizer, which just cover up the smell of paint fumes (and which can contain toxic VOCs themselves), essential oils actually eat up VOCs and other pertrochemicals. (As a test, pour a drop of lemon oil into a styrofoam cup and watch it eat right through the petrochemical foam.)
The best way to use essential oils for air purification is by diffusing them with a cold air diffuser or nebulizing diffuser. This kind of diffuser plugs into an electric outlet and gently mists the oils into the air. There is no heat involved, so the molecules of the essential oils are undamaged and can do their work of neutralizing paint smells and other toxic fumes.
Spider Plants Famed as Air Purifiers
Finally, plants are a terrific way to purify and draw toxins out of air at home or in the office. Although they're a little less efficient than essential oils or onions, they're completely neutral and have no smell of their own to bother housemates or coworkers.
Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) in particular are renowned for their ability to purify air and make indoor environments healthier for people and animals.
A Final Note on Paint Fumes
There are special VOC-free paints that don't contain as many dangerous chemicals and don't gas off for as long. Regular paint, wood finish, varnish, lacquer and plaster all contain compounds that gas off and that can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, sore throats, immune suppression, and other long term effects. It's well worth the time and effort to take one (or more) of these measures to protect the health of anyone living or working in a freshly painted zone.
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