Paints safe for breastfeeding moms

[BelgianSheepDog]

I'm going back to art school in January if all goes well but I am nervous about the toxicity risks since my daughter will be only 7 months and still exclusively breastfeeding. I'll be avoiding all cadmiums, nickels, and cobalts, of course (sadly, I love the effects of cadmium red and cobalt blue.) What else should I avoid? Any safe alternatives? I usually work with acrylics and oil pastels (on canvas using tons of thinner, heh) so I am going to have to change how I work considerably to keep it safe.

Any tips from those who have tried the same are greatly appreciated. Especially if you can tell me a way to make quinacridone red look less like a watery magenta, bleh.

[melissa17s]

Consider wearing gloves, if you get the paints on you hands- avoid skin contact. Wear a good respirator mask when working with thinner or turpentine.

You can get OSHA materials sheets for the different paints from the companies that make them or sell them. The should say whether or not the product is dangerous for a pregnant or breast feeding woman...or may list things that you know to be bad.

[BelgianSheepDog]

Yeah I'm definitely going to wear gloves, and an apron. I don't usually use turpentine, but the stuff I do use probably isn't a whole lot better. I usually work right by an open window.

I'm thinking about getting a limited pallette of water soluable oils. They're expensive but if I just get some basic colors and mix that would be one way to get the richness of oil without as much chemical exposure.

[Queen of my Castle]

hmm... last comment first- but water-soluables just take out the binder- which isn't the toxic part. Like you said in your first post, it's the actual pigment that is dangerous, I guess except for the small amount of turps in the binder.
What about hues? for example, cad red is usually a hue unless you buy the expensive stuff. leads, of course aren't used anymore, and if you're not getting it on your hands you only worry about inhalation. For your solvent- do be careful b/c a lot of solvents are just as bad as turpentine (such as Odourless Mineral Spirits) you just can;t smell them. Not as good for your paints either. A product you can check out that's supposed to be the safest around and the most compatible with the paint is called Izosol. Look it up on the net- although it may be a Canadian product.
To be honest, I didn't change the colours I used when I was pregnant (am pregnant again) nor breastfeeding. I used a different solvent, and used gloves when washing my brushes. That's it. I use cobalts, and just switched to true cadmiums. hey, and isn't quinacridone not like a cadmium anyway? isn't it more like an alizaron crimson? my fave- use that instead.
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