How is AFM Safecoat Low VOC Green paint related to the swine flu, the avian flu, ebola and the 1995 movie “Outbreak”? Hang with me here, folks. In Outbreak, Dustin Hoffman (along with Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, etc) star in a movie about a little monkey that goes to California and almost causes human extinction (lots of hijinks ensue in between). The most important thing to note here is that Dustin and Rene got to wear these great Haz Mat suits! Back in 1995, and especially in the decades preceding, house paint used to be a cocktail of hazardous materials. The MSDS was often several pages long, containing words like “inhalation hazard”, “respiratory damage”, “carcinogenic” and “enriched uranium.” OK, I made that last one up. Nonetheless, I felt like I had to wear one of those nifty Outbreak suits anytime I painted. See, I told you I’d tie this all together! I thought about getting a suit for house painting, but decided it might alarm the neighbors already jumpy about the latest virus du jour. Anyway, thankfully we live in greener times, and the former lead-based, high-VOC paints have been replaced by many low and zero VOC eco-friendly, green paints. A few years ago, one of our more tree-huggy friends [click to continue…]