Toluene in The Paint and Printing Industry

First of all, do you all know what toluene is? Have you all seen that thing? Or have you at least heard of the word toluene? If you have, do you know what the substance toluene looks like? Yes, the form of toluene itself is in liquid form. Then, is toluene a colored liquid? No, toluene is a liquid that has no color, also known to have a color like water. After knowing the form and color of toluene, did you know that toluene has a distinctive smell? It is known that toluene has an aroma like paint thinner and smells sweet like benzene. 

Why does toluene have a fragrant smells like benzene? Because toluene itself has a benzene ring in its chemical structure, therefore toluene is classified as an aromatic compound. Back again with the distinctive smell of toluene, maybe there are some people who like the smell like paint thinner, right? But you need to know that this smell is not good if we inhale too much. So, we should not inhale too much paint thinner. Above we already mentioned “aromatic hydrocarbons”, what are aromatic hydrocarbons? Aromatic hydrocarbons are basically hydrocarbon compounds with a circular chain or what is usually called a ring bonds between single and double C atoms alternating (conjugation). 

Aromatic hydrocarbon compounds are compounds that are usually obtained from the plant extract process which produce a fragrant odor, and can maintain their properties characteristics when extracted so that no changes occur beyond predetermined limits, that’s why toluene is a compound that has a fragrant smell. Benzene and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds are nonpolar compounds, namely compounds that are insoluble in water, but can be dissolved in organic solvents. After knowing that toluene is insoluble in water, non – polar, and has a distinctive odor like paint thinner, you should also know that the toluene compound also has the property of being volatile if it is in the form of a liquid. 

One of the industries currently developing is the printing industry. The growth of the printing industry in Indonesia in 2011 is estimated to reach 4.7 percent or higher compared to the world average growth of only around 1.6 percent. This means that the need for production and printing services in Indonesia is very great increase. Did you know that in fact the volatile nature of toluene is highly utilized in the paint and printing industries? There are still many printing presses and companies out there that rely on toluene compounds for their business. Toluene is usually found in gasoline, rubber, glue, paint products, nail polish, and in printing. In gasoline you usually smell a distinctive odor which is very strong for your sense of smell right? Because gasoline itself contains toluene in it. In the rubber you will also smell a distinctive smell, although it is not as strong as gasoline, the rubber still gives off a smell. Of course, in the glue you will smell a distinctive smell, right? There are some glues that contain toluene compounds in it. It turns out that some paint products also contain toluene which causes the paint product itself to have a distinctive smell, for example when you have finished applying paint to a wall, you will usually smell that distinctive smell. And also to beautify your nails, what do you usually use? Yes, that’s right! Usually people, especially women decorate their nails to make them look beautiful by using a variety of nail polish products. If you have ever used nail polish, when you apply the nail polish to your nails, you will definitely smell a distinctive smell. This is all because nail polish and all the products mentioned above contain toluene in them. Apart from the things mentioned above, there are still many products that contain toluene in them. But this time we will focus on paint products that contain toluene compounds. 

In your opinion, in the paint products and printing industry, what role does toluene play? In paint products and the printing industry itself, toluene acts as a solvent. The solvent here functions so that the ingredients in the paint product can mix well and so that the resulting product can come out perfectly as expected. Of course solvents have a very important role and are even the preferred ingredients in paint products, why? Because if there is no solvent in a paint products, what do you think will happen? Yes, that’s right, all the ingredients contained in a pain product will not mix with each other. If there is no solvent, what happens is that the other ingredients contained in the paint separate piece by piece, and will not produce any paint product. 

If the product is separated, the resulting paint product cannot be used or applied to the object. For example wall paint will not be able to be applied to your walls, nail polish will not be able to be applied to your nails so your nails cannot be beautified as you want. And other products that require solvents for application cannot be used properly. Therefore, solvents are very important in paint products so that they can produce good products that can be used properly. 

In nail polish products, toluene itself works as a solvent, what does the toluene in nail polish dissolve? The toluene itself in nail polish can dissolve the substances needed to produce a nail polish product that can be used properly, these substances are substances such as resin and plasticizer for example. The resin itself in nail polish is used to that the resulting nail polish can have a shiny effect and makes the nail polish harden after it has been applied and dries on the nails. Nail polish should look shiny when it is dry because this can make your nails look beautiful and can make your nails look special. Therefore, many people especially women, compete to use nail polish so that their nails can look beautiful with various kinds of nail polish. 

Apart from having shiny nails, of course you want nails that when touched have a very smooth surface, right? You do not want nails that have a rough, jagged surface, right? Therefore, to make your nails have a smooth surface, in making nail polish you need a plasticizer which functions as a softener. This plasticizer has its own function that is needed in making paint products. So that the paint product you produce has elasticity, flexibility and strong durability, this plasticizer is added to the paint product along with the resin material, which will then be dissolved with other paint forming ingredients using toluene solvent. 

Apart from nail polish, wall paint products also require toluene as a solvent. You’ve definitely seen and smelled paint, right? The smell comes from the thinner material or what is usually called “paint thinner”, which in fact contains the compound toluene. Toluene in wall paint products has the function of dissolving materials such as binders (which are used so that paint products will have adhesive power on the object / wall surface that will be coated with the paint), pigments (which make paint products have various colors), additives (which are substances added to prevent bio – organisms from growing in the finished paint product), and other additional ingredients added. Toluene here also functions to evaporate the paint after it is applied to the wall surface so that paint can dry quickly. And the last, the function of toluene in this wall pain product is so that the viscosity of the paint product can be adjusted properly so as to produce a paint product that is not too thick and not too runny. 

After knowing the very important and necessary role of the toluene in loading paint products, be it wall paint products, nail polish products, or other paint products, it is no wonder why the paint and printing industry uses it. A thing, whether in the form of goods, behavior or whatever, definitely has advantages and disadvantages, good and bad, as well as positive and negative impacts, right? Likewise, the toluene substance used in this paint product apart from having the positive impact described above, namely being useful as a solvent, can make the paint product flexible and has the property of quickly evaporating which is of course useful in the paint drying process, toluene also of course has it is own negative impact. Surprising isn’t it? It turns out that a very important substance in the manufacture of paint products has a negative impact. 

This toluene substance has a negative impact on the lives of humans who are exposed to excessive amounts. The negative impact of toluene can be detrimental to oneself, other people and the surrounding environment. As a lay person who may “only” be exposed to toluene through paint products, even small quantities can be negatively impacted. Imagine how employees who make paint products, every day at least inhaling toluene in the factory, will definitely experience more negative impacts from exposure to toluene than we do. So what are the bad effects of toluene?

The first negative impacts, if you are exposed to toluene by repeated continuous skin contact, this exposure can cause reddish skin, then you will feel itching on your skin and accompanied by dry skin. Even though the negative impacts caused by toluene through skin contact are not too severe compared to other dangerous substances, you still do not want your healthy skin to be affected by the negative impacts mentioned above, you want your skin to remain as healthy as it should be. 

Secondly, excessive exposure to toluene can have an impact on our nervous system, damage to the central nervous system can occur if we really do not take good precautions. Damage to the nervous system can take the form of loss of memory that we previously had, disruption of our sleep (which should sleep soundly but now can’t), apart from that, we can also lose the ability to concentrate so that during activities we won’t be able to do it as well as before. It turns out that exposure to toluene can cause serious damage to the nervous system, of course you don’t want that toluene to cause scary things to your body, right? Then exposure to toluene can also reduce human vision, this can cause human vision to become blurrier and can even result in blindness if exposure to toluene is very large. Then, if you work in a paint product factory, of course you don’t want to be exposed to toluene, which in very large quantities can cause damage to your kidney organs. 

In addition, exposure to toluene can cause respiratory problems if you inhale it continuously in large amounts. You don’t want that to happen when you’re working in a paint factory, right? If you inhaled a smell you didn’t want, how would you feel? Uncomfortable right? You may feel dizzy when you inhale it. Inhaling even a small amount can cause discomfort and dizziness, let alone inhaling a large amount, of course you will feel very dizzy. Likewise, if you inhale too much toluene, you can feel dizzy and it can even cause vertigo in your body. That’s the negative impact that toluene can have on our bodies, there are so many negative impacts that we shouldn’t have. Exposure to toluene itself can enter our bodies through our respiratory system (by inhaling), through our mouth (if accidentally swallowed), and also of course by skin contact (touching it intentionally or unintentionally). The highest blood concentration for chronic toluene abuse for subjects who are still alive is 83.7 mg/L, while for victims who have died it is 54 mg/L, and for fatal cases of toluene it can reach 110 mg/L toluene concentrations in the blood. This research also shows that most people still think that symptoms such as headaches, partial memory loss, hallucinations and loss of balance are the impact of alcohol consumed. In fact, all of this can occur due to exposure to toluene which comes from glue, gasoline, thinner, solvents, etc.

However, after knowing the negative impacts caused by toluene, it is surprising why toluene is still used as a solvent by the paint industry and the printing industry itself? Shouldn’t it be known that toluene is bad because it causes exposure to humans, the paint and printing industry should no longer use toluene as a solvent and look for other alternatives? What makes the paint and printing industry maintain toluene as the solvent used? In fact, apart from its ability to dissolve other substances, toluene also has properties that can make products dry quickly after application. Therefore, toluene is needed by the paint and printing industry. If you are painting the walls of your house or applying nail polish to your nails, or printing, you certainly don’t want to waste time just waiting for the paint to dry, you definitely want paint that when applied once doesn’t have to waste a lot of time on the drying process. So you can easily repaint after the first layer is dry to produce a good color. 

After knowing various things about the toluene substance found in paint and printing products which is used as a solvent, we should avoid things that can cause us to be exposed to it. If you want to use nail polish, first look at the ingredients in it, whether it contains toluene or other dangerous substances or not. If so, it’s best not to use it and look for nail polish that only contains ingredients that are not harmful to the body. Likewise, if you are going to buy a wall paint product, you should first look at the ingredients in it. Look for products that do not contain toluene compounds and other dangerous ingredients, even though it is difficult, it is better than you being exposed to serious exposure to toluene compounds.