COMMENTARY

SOLVENTS HAZARD Solvents are widely used in industrial processes and they can be harmful to their users if precautions are neglected. In fact, safety is one of the factors encouraging the use of solvent‐free coatings. The property of causing narcosis is common to most organic industrial solvents. In addition, certain solvents have a toxic property which, being slower in onset and hence usually insidious, tends to be more serious in effects. Whereas recovery following narcosis is usually complete, recovery after toxic manifestations may be incomplete, for irreversible damage to certain organs of the body may already have taken place.