Dangerous Arts: Hazards in the Studio
Part I: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act "RCRA"
by
Cindy Ellen Hill, Esq. for Fine Art Registry™
While the creation of art is usually perceived as being culturally beneficent, making art is fraught with hazards to the health of the artist and anyone else working in a studio, as well as to the natural environment. Art materials include a plethora of hazardous elements that can be toxic, corrosive, flammable, explosive, irritants, cancer-causing agents, and allergens. These include pigments containing heavy metals; solvents, thinners and oils; photo chemicals, inks and dyes; adhesives, dust and fumes. All of these elements create legal as well as safety concerns at every stage, from purchase and storage, to use and disposal.
"Wise artists and purchasers are likely to be asking more questions about the nature and handlng of the materials that make up their art acquistitions.”
Fortunately these materials do not present much of a hazard to art collectors. However, with consumers demonstrating increased concern over environmental impacts of their purchases, as well as increased knowledge in the medical field about the impacts of hazardous material off-gassing and chronic exposure to low-level chemicals creating negative effects such as ‘sick building syndrome’, wise artists and purchasers are likely to be asking more questions about the nature and handling of the materials that make up their art acquisitions.
With many of these hazardous materials, the relative danger is a matter of scale: the occasional weekend watercolourist with a small paintbox who manages to wind up with blue paint on his or her fingers is less likely to develop negative health conditions than the full-time mural painter who airbrushes day and night without a respirator in his or her unventilated basement. However, ongoing exposure over time to even low levels of the volatile organic compounds or heavy metals found in solvents, dyes, and kiln-firing gasses, can lead to chronic toxicity and eventual severe repercussions.
The potential impacts of any hazardous materials are increased in children and persons with underlying health problems such as allergies, asthma, or immune deficiencies. Pregnant women in particular should exercise extreme caution in their exposure to hazardous materials.
Which sets of laws apply to the art materials used in by any particular artist is also a matter of scale. Manufacturers and generators of hazardous materials must meet federal standards for commercial facilities; single artists and very small studios usually need only follow the same regulations as household consumers do for cleaning products and bug sprays; and any studio which has employees will need to follow state and federal regulations regarding workplace health and safety.
The laws pertaining to disposal of hazardous material vary from community to community, and are also related to the quantities being disposed of. Hazardous materials should never be flushed down the drain or tossed in the garbage; take small quantities to household hazardous waste collection events, and larger quantities will have to be taken to commercial hazardous waste disposal facilities, which could involve a hefty disposal fee (though cheaper than the fines for illegal dumping, and the liability for any damage it might cause).
Here we’ll look at the major statute which tracks the manufacturer, transportation, and disposal of hazardous materials including many art supplies. In the next two articles we’ll look at the laws regarding labeling of art materials, and occupational safety and health regulations for the studio workplace.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
In 1976, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, called RCRA (pronounced Rickrah). Like prior solid waste laws, this statute continued to provide incentives for the adoption of state and regional solid waste disposal plans that complied with federally-set standards, but it also mandated regulation of a subset of the garbage stream called ‘hazardous waste’.
A hazardous waste is defined as a solid waste that may cause or significantly contribute to increased mortality or illness or threaten human health or the environment when improperly handled. Hazardous waste can also be further defined as a solid waste which is ignitable, corrosive, or reactive.
Hazardous wastes are generally disposed of by incineration, or by combining the substance with other chemicals which render it inert or harmless, or by landfilling. Through RCRA, Congress instituted two main control methods for hazardous wastes: first, the ‘cradle to grave’ manifest system to track hazardous materials from production to disposal; and second, a system of permits for the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.
RCRA is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste (OSW). The OSW website, like other on-line resources from EPA, contains extremely easy to use, accessible information about RCRA including the statute text and the regulations as well as factual information about solid waste and hazardous waste for all levels of use and understanding. You can find it at www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw.
According to the OSW, RCRA’s goals are:
- Protect us from the hazards of waste disposal;
- Conserve energy and natural resources by recycling and recovery;
- Reduce or eliminate waste; and,
- Clean up waste which may have spilled, leaked, or been improperly disposed.
Tracking Hazardous Materials
The RCRA ‘cradle to grave’ hazardous waste tracking system involves the generation of a seven-part paper manifest by the hazardous material manufacturer. This form then follows along with the hazardous material through each stage of transportation, use, consumption or disposal. An on-line registry of manifests is presently being initiated.
The RCRA manifest system is mandatory; however, it does not apply to “small generators” of hazardous waste. Under federal law, a small generator is one who generates less than 1000 kg per month of hazardous waste or less than 1 kg per month of acutely hazardous waste. Obviously, collectively, the products of these ‘small generators’ can still tally significant quantities of hazardous waste released into the environment.
"If your studio generates more than the occasional empty tube of paint, however, it is important to check with your state agencies or local solid waste district to determine if any state regulations must be followed.”
RCRA does authorize states to impose stricter hazardous waste control than the federal requirements. States can, and often do, use much smaller exemption standards, and many states define a larger range of materials as hazardous wastes. Most smaller art studios are not likely to surpass the federal ‘small generator’ quantities, but some -- especially those that work with large quantities of solvents such as in electroplating, may well be required to participate in the RCRA manifest system. If your studio generates anything more than the occasional empty tube of paint, however, it is important to check with your state agencies or local solid waste district to determine if any state regulations must be followed.
Hazardous Waste Disposal
The second mechanism of RCRA regarding hazardous waste disposal is permits issued to hazardous waste handling and disposal facilities. If your studio generates hazardous wastes in greater than the ‘small generator’ exception amounts, you will need to dispose of that waste at one of these licensed facilities. Because of the expenses inherent in obtaining licenses and meeting the rigid EPA standards for safe disposal, it can be very expensive to dispose of hazardous wastes. While this can unfortunately lead to illegal dumping, it has more often been the impetus to seek alternative materials or switch to new technologies that generate less hazardous waste. Commercial plating operations, for example, have undergone a revolution in technique involving back-washing solvents and recapturing dissolved metals, which has not only been a great improvement to health and the natural environment, but saved the industry significant money for resources that previously were, literally, washing down the drain. Artists can experience similar benefits by thinking about ways to maximize use of materials before disposing of them, for example by allowing solvents and thinners to settle or filtering them and using them again until they lose their utility.
Just like the exemption of small hazardous waste generators from RCRA manifest systems, there are exemptions to the hazardous materials disposal mandates as well. This exemption is usually referred to as ‘household hazardous waste’. Bits of nail polish remover, batteries, old paint and thinner, cleaning chemicals, and bug spray that are used in an ordinary household, comprise in each individual container too little hazardous material for Congress to require stringent disposal. However, collectively, these hazardous materials still represent large quantities that cause problems to municipal solid waste disposal. With the assistance of incentive funding through RCRA, municipalities now operate over 3000 household hazardous waste pickup programs throughout the country where small quantities of hazardous material can be accumulated and then properly disposed of. The municipality then becomes the ‘generator’ of the hazardous material once it reaches a significant quantity.
Concerns about hazardous waste disposal can be greatly alleviated by making conscientious purchasing decisions and being knowledgeable about the materials being used in your artwork. The next article in this series will look at labeling requirements and industry labeling standards to help in those choices.
— Cindy Ellen Hill, Esq. | December 26, 2006
Read the series:
Dangerous Arts Part I: Hazards in the Studio Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Dangerous Arts Part II: Read the Label
Dangerous Arts Part III: Occupational Safety and Health
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