About Us

Our values, mission and history

The Original Nontoxic Building Products Brand
AFM Safecoat® – the original building products brand dedicated to helping its customers live healthier, sensitivity-free lives. 
All AFM products, including its Safecoat®, SafeChoice® and AFM Naturals™ lines, are uniquely formulated to eliminate toxic emissions and prevent poor indoor air quality – creating healthy homes, schools and offices, and ultimately, protecting the environment. AFM remains the top choice for health (and style!) conscious designers and consumers.
Whether you need to prime it, paint it, seal it, stain it or fill it, AFM has a solution for you!

 

A History of Medically Approved Solutions

Founded in 1983, AFM has been on a mission to transform traditional industry formulas into healthier alternatives as a direct result of the founder’s own chemical sensitivities. That’s 40 years’ experience creating products that can improve indoor air quality and solve problems related to “sick building syndrome!” 

AFM grew out of its relationship with the medical industry – in particular, prominent physicians, allergists and environmental medicine specialists looking to meet the needs of their chemically sensitive patients. 

In 1984, AFM introduced Safe Seal, which got its first major trial at an armed forces hospital in Nevada that had been forced to close after making its allergy patients sicker. Doctors suspected indoor air pollution from walls, ceilings, carpets, etc., to be the culprit. After coating the interior of the facility with AFM’s Safe Seal, the hospital successfully reopened. Safe Seal’s overwhelming effectiveness and success has since led to the development of a complete line of safe alternatives to traditional building materials. 

Today, doctors continue to write prescriptions for AFM products to their allergy and chemically sensitive patients. Large companies and government offices around the world also use AFM products because they are among the safest, most health-conscious building materials on the market. 

The Industry Leader for Good Reason

As the demand for safer building products continues to increase, brands large and small have started offering their own nontoxic and zero-to-low VOC solutions. But therein lies the problem. The rush to introduce “safer” products has allowed manufacturer’s to only meet the regulatory minimum requirements. 

As much as this has raised the bar, it still falls short of the goal. For example, zero VOC products can still contain unregulated ingredients called Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). All AFM products are HAPs free. Each component in AFM’s formulations comes from quality, highly refined raw materials, resulting in the “cleanest” products (in terms of chemical toxicity) available – products that do not cause or contribute to indoor or outdoor air pollution. 

In fact, AFM has been recognized with several environmental awards, such as a Special Commendation for Environmental Achievement, an “Earth Award” from the City of San Diego (where AFM’s headquarters are based), and the American Marketing Association’s Edison Award for Best Environmental Products.

As a result, the niche AFM started by working with environmental medicine physicians has become mainstream, With dealers in the United States, Japan, Europe, Canada and Hong Kong, AFM continues to produce only environmentally safe materials. And with constant research and development, AFM introduces several new products every year.