Originally Posted by mrsD

We had another poster here that was possibly poisoned by her pigments. (pointing her brushes with her mouth!)

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post1053214-621.html

I used to paint alot in the past, then I had to work overtime to pay for my son's college training etc, and didn't do much (only a little drawing)

I am returning to it now, and discovering that many of the pigments I was familiar with are gone, and replaced by synthetic non heavy metal ones. ( I use watercolors predominately).. so I am buying a whole new range of colors!
(this has been a surprisingly complex task!)

Cobalt is on the way out.
Cadmium reds and yellows are being replaced
Chromium greens
Manganese blue
Mercury
(of course Lead white...but that has been gone a long time)
There is arsenic in many earth pigments too.

I was always very careful not to get anything on my skin.

You can also breathe in pigments from pastels. I see pastels are much less commonly used today compared to the past.

The mineral spirits used for clean up of oil based paints are also not good long term for nerves.