Question from Ronda

Hi Debra –

I am looking into changing out the glass in the picture frames and large artwork frames in my home to plexiglass. I’m doing this because I live where earthquakes are common and I have two toddlers.

Are there any toxic issues regarding plexiglass?

As always, thanks for your great advice!!

Debra’s Answer

Plexiglass is made from acrylic plastic, which does outgas some. It’s not a material I would use personally if I had another choice, but it’s also not the most toxic material in the world.

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area–famous for it’s earthquakes–for almost fifty years and had glass in my frames the entire time. I never had a problem with it. Even in the Loma Priata quake that brought freeways crashing down.

I think the likelihood of your children being next to a framed picture at the very moment an earthquake is occuring AND having that picture fall to the ground is very slim. On the other hand, acrylic would be outgassing in your home every day.

BTW, in searching for what Plexiglass is made from, I came across a useful website. It’s called MatWeb, and it lists material property data. Now, I’m not so interested in the properties of these materials beyond their toxicity (which it doesn’t list), but it does list a lot of brand name products and the materials they are made from. Took me about a minute to find out Plexiglass is made from acrylic.

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