The paint brand Coral, owned by AkzoNobel, has launched a new, extensively tested transparent wall paint in Brazil. The ‘Well-being anti-mosquito’ paint repels mosquitoes and should therefore help against dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya.
All these diseases can be contracted by people through the bite of a mosquito, specifically the Aedes aegyptim mosquito, known to us as the yellow fever mosquito. Coral’s new paint product contains permethrin, a mosquito-repellent substance that is also used on mosquito nets. The substance is a biocide, according to European legislation not very dangerous for humans, while the American legislator considers it to be carcinogenic. Mice and other small animals can become seriously ill at high doses.
The paint product has been approved for the Brazilian market after extensive testing. Tests were done with rooms painted with the transparent paint. Mosquitoes were chased away without noticeably reducing the amount of permethrin in the paint layer.
Dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases are a major problem in South America, among others. In the first months of 2022, there was a 165 percent increase in dengue cases in Brazil.
Insect repellent paints are not new. There is a Spanish variant, which is said to work mainly against malaria and sleeping sickness. The Japanese paint brand Kansai Paint also makes a mosquito-repellent paint, which is approved in Africa and America.