safe bottom paint time

[Robert Lemasters]

All paint is toxic. Even house paint. Bottom paint from what I gather acts as a sort of insecticide. Pound fisherman for years have mixed cayanne pepper powder with thier bottom paint, it works very well for about a year more or less, but it is also toxic. Years ago a company came to wife with a bottom paint product that had cayanne pepper as the active ingrediant; however, my wife who was then President of Seaguard Marine (marine coatings and paints) could not manufacture it or sell it because it was not EPA or government apporved.
Copper seems less toxic than most other metals such as red lead but when you think of it red lead lasted 5 to 10 times longer than copper and was more durable (it is still used in some foreign countries and even the locks on the Panama Canal are still coated with red lead when they need painted. I am in favor of going back to red lead because it lasts longer and may in the long run have a less toxic effect on our waters because less of it is needed over time than copper or tri-butal tin which is now or soon to be outlawed for all uses,is exremely dangerous to all living things and never goes away. Red lead as it very slowly wears off the bottom sinks faster then copper and tri-butyl tin, they stay in the salt water solution longer poisoning , killing or causing mutations and cancer(tri-butal tin) in every life form they come in contact with.