Switching to available water-based supplies is a reasonable way for maintenance companies to protect their employees and improve air quality generally. The report, An Assessment of Metal Maintenance Workers' Solvent Exposures, is based on work begun in 1994 in an effort to develop strategies to control worker exposures to hazards during elevator refinishing.
Some solvents are also highly flammable.
Some of the alternate materials contained solvents. The alternate products are not without hazards. CPWR is the research arm of the Building and Construction Trades Department. The Building and Construction Trades Department consists of 15 international unions and some 3 million construction workers.