State College council member Elizabeth Goreham recently had Olsen paint her living room and bathroom with the flax seed product.

"I really love the idea of supporting more environmentally sensitive products," she said. "There are no fumes. You don't feel sick when it's done."

So far, Olsen's painting is limited to houses rather than apartments or larger structures. He said he prefers to work with houses in order to bring out their "inherent beauty."

Olsen's paints, which he now mixes himself with his 140 custom-made formulas, do not chip the way latex paints can, he said. The chemicals added to latex paints are meant to make it thinner, dry more quickly and easier to use. But, he says, they also make house fires more dangerous and add toxins to the air.

However, Bill Dreibelbis, the manager of health and environmental programs at Penn State, does not see a difference between toxins released by oil paints and organic paints.

"A typical building will release a toxic combination," he said. "(Toxins from any paint) are just part of the mix."

Latex paints are widely used because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is forcing a decrease in the use of oil-based paints, which it says release toxins into the air, said Joe Keiser, director of the general chemistry labs at Penn State. But the agency also sees organic paint toxins as harmful to the environment when they are released.

While Olsen uses oil-based paints, his are made using essential oils from plants rather than petrochemical-derived oil that would release carcinogens into the air, he said.

The work is much harder, he said, but he sees preserving his health as worth the extra time.