COATINGS
Layering safety and sustainability
Over the years, paints in the rail industry have become more environmentally friendly and less hazardous when dry. Rail Technology Magazine spoke to Peter Collins, technical director of the Paint Research Association, to find out more
W
hen the railways were built, the engineers
didn’t worry too much about whether the paint they were using was environmentally friendly or even free of lead.
This means many of Britain’s railway structures were covered in paint which was potentially hazardous. But now there is a raft of rules and regulations in place to minimise the risk of paints and coatings polluting their local environments.
“There are two main aspects to safety – one is hazard and the other is risk,” says Peter Collins, technical director at the Paint Research Association.
“Hazard is inherent to an item and some materials are more hazardous than others - risk comes down to what you do with those materials.
“With regards to paints, the thing you have to bear in mind is that there are hazards and risks associated with the application of those paints and coatings and then there are the hazards inherent in the dry paint film which those paints and coatings form.
“The problem with lead – and other heavy metals – which would have been used in paints in the past, is that the dry film remains hazardous.
“Whilst the paints being used now may well have hazards associated with them during the
hard to minimise risk to their own employees and the environment around where their products are used - which includes the general public.”
Needless to say, this endless desire for achievement and high standards also benefits the companies themselves.
Peter Collins
“Corporate self- enlightenment and legislators operate collaboratively like a pair of pincers on organisations to make things better”
application phase, they will have a greatly reduced level of hazard associated with their dry film – which the local environment is exposed to.”
Peter explained that there are a number of factors driving this improvement.
“If you consider the paint and coatings industry, it includes some major players (which are mostly large chemical corporations) who are used to and adept at handling and minimising hazards and risks.
“For example, Akzo Nobel, which is one of the main players in this market, also recently won the top spot on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
“This shows how these companies are working very
“One of the reasons they do this is because a company’s sustainability rating affects their share price and therefore their bottom line. So being top of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index does good things for a company both in terms of the company’s share price and in people’s willingness to buy those shares, which in turn affects the price of those shares again.”
This means many large chemical organisations which make the paints used on the railways are committing significant resources to becoming as sustainable as possible and so this will be reflected in their products – in this case, the paints which they produce for use in the rail industry.
“There is real pressure within global finance for companies to become more sustainable and that then trickles down to the smaller players, who also then have to comply with those rigorous standards.”
Naturally, the laws of whichever country the paint is being used in will also help in driving up standards.
“Whilst the paints being used now may well have hazards associated with them during the application phase, they will have a greatly reduced level of hazard associated with their dry film – which the local environment is exposed to.”
24 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 11
The other stakeholders are the legislators, who operate both at a national level and within Europe, to make things better.
“They do this to ensure standards keep on rising to benefit the people in those countries, along with the wider political pressure which they feel to improve the environment, given the immense amount of public interest in the subject.
“In a way, corporate self- enlightenment and legislators operate collaboratively like a pair of pincers, as it were, on organisations to make things better.
“There is also continual pressure from groups like Friends of the Earth to improve the sustainability of paint products.”
Of course, it is not just organisations which are applying the pressure for paints to be more sustainable.
“There will be people at Network Rail who are very aware of these sorts of issues and the need to do better, in terms of corporate responsibility to make sure that firstly they are not doing anything which at the moment is known to be bad for people – because if they are, there is a fair chance they will end up getting themselves sued.
“Secondly, they will want to ensure they stay abreast of what is coming down the tracks in terms of any future legislation.
“There are all sorts of pressures within society to make industry clean up its act with regards to sustainability.”
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