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Foil finish wallpaper for chemically sensitive people

Here's an unusual Q for you: does anyone know of a very non toxic way to make foil white?

The reason I ask is that, if so, a heavy foil wallpaper colored off-white would make the rehab of some houses possible for chemically sensitive people. (Aluminum foil or any metal for that matter is a vapor barrier for what makes us ill in or behind the walls - but we are tired of living in silver rooms & want more normal looking walls!)

This unusual request comes from a group of us who are very chemically sensitive and unable to live in conventional buildings. (e.g. I cannot tolerate normal paint until it offgasses about 5 years but handle powder coated metal well (much better than baked enamel) but it would be too costly to have foil powder coated.) If anyone knows of another way it would be INVALUABLE to the many living in cars, tents, trailers & even homeless - not due to money constraints but material tolerability constraints. There is a core group of us numbering about 10,000 and the National Academy Of Sciences predicts that by 2010 60% of the population will have chemical sensitivities. This is already a serious epidemic and a product like this would in my opinion be lucrative for the future. Thank you so much for listening to our plight. Any arrows in any directions would be most appreciated!

Looking forward to any answers even if longshots,

Kim Palmer
- Rimrock, Arizona, USA
2002

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White is a hard color to achieve; it cannot be done by anodizing the aluminum, and there are no metal patinas I know of that are white either. But, in theory at least, aluminum can be anodized in a variety of pastel shades using mild dyes probably based on food coloring. I don't know of a commercial source but it should be doable

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
 

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Kim,

Prepainted aluminum is available from any coil coater. Rejected coil may be available from their stock in a number of widths.

Herb Ashley
Herb Ashley, IPC - Smartt, Tennessee, USA

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Thanks, Herb. I guess that's a long term solution if Kim can wait five years for the outgassing to dissipate :-)

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
 

Hi there, to anybody who is interested and following this question: Kim will be testing a new wallpaper named VALUTECT in the next weeks. It is produced by a german company and consists of three (four or five) layers, the first of which is polyethylene, the second is aluminium foil and the third is a special odorless wallpaper in a creamy white. I have posted some pieces for testing yesterday and I surely hope it is going to work. The company says they have lots of german MCS-customers. If anybody wants to know more I can answer any question.

Moon Mcneill
- Germany

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2007

Is there a chance that Moon from Germany would contact me to discuss the effectiveness of the paper.

I am thinking of using to renovate a property form myself and my partners who suffers from chemical allergies.

I will be happy to call whomever in whatever country to discuss further.
Thanks a lot.

Lisa Thomas-Courtenay
- Buckinghamshire, England