Phl joins global action vs. lead paint

Now, this piece of good news comes like a breath of fresh air (literally)! For soon, we can all heave a big sigh of relief as lead paints are finally wiped out of the local market even as we celebrate The International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week of Action (ILPPWA) on Oct. 2329, as spearheaded by the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The muchanticipated event sets a common stage for people around the globe to raise awareness about lead poisoning, highlight numerous efforts to prevent childhood lead poisoning, and urge further action to eliminate lead paint.

Note that we’ve talked a lot in the past about the ill health effects of lead on both children and adults. What’s alarming is the fact that no amount of lead is considered safe and it can enter the body through eating and/or inhaling it. In children, exposure to lead, even at low blood lead levels, can cause decrease in academic performance and increase in behavioral problems and attention-related behaviors (such as ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

In adults, lead exposure can cause decreased kidney function, increased blood pressure, hypertension, degenerative disorder of the central nervous system (such as tremors of the arms or hands).

Since lead is an abundant natural resource and easy to extract, it is used in a wide range of products such as, yes, paints, cosmetics, ceramics, gasoline, batteries, pipes, toys, inexpensive metal jewelry, and glazed pottery. We’re commonly exposed to lead in the household dust we may breathe or the drinking water pumped through lead pipes we may drink, or even the food we might ingest through contaminated soil.

And now, enough of the talk, let’s walk the talk. This year’s International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week of Action becomes more significant as the Philippines enters the final 10 weeks before lead-containing architectural, decorative, and household (ADH) paints are finally taken off the market shelves starting Jan. 1, 2017. Under the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), paint manufacturers were given a three-year phase-out period (2013-2016) for ADH paints and a longer six-year phase-out time (2013-2019) for paints used in industrial applications.

“With the deadline for the removal of lead-added ADH paints just 10 weeks away, we call upon all stakeholders, particularly paint manufacturers, distributors, sellers, and consumers, to rally behind this historic target that will remove a common source of lead exposure in our children’s environment,” urges Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste Coalition national coordinator.

The DENR Environmental Management Bureau, the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers, the toxics watch group EcoWaste Coalition and its international civil society partner IPEN were the key players in the country’s decisive move to prohibit the intentional use of lead, commonly added as pigment, drier or as anti-corrosive agent, in the manufacture, sale, and use of ADH paints and other paints that can contribute to childhood exposures. “Lead paint, particularly when used in the home, in schools, and on toys, is an important source of lead exposure for children,” states Dr. Maria Neira of WHO’s Department of Public Health.

She stresses, “There is no need to add lead to paint — safer alternative chemicals can be used. Alternatives to lead in paint are widely available; the total cost is minimal.”

“Children — especially those under six years of age — ingest or inhale lead through exposure to dust or soil contaminated with lead- based paint and normal hand- to- mouth behavior or when they chew on toys, household furniture or other articles painted with lead paint,” says Dr. Sara Brosche, project manager, IPEN Global Lead Paint Elimination Campaign.

WHO, which has listed lead among the top 10 chemicals of public health concern, explains that “exposure to lead poses a significant hazard to human health, especially for children. The health effects can have a lifelong impact and include damage to body organs, behavioral problems, and impairment to mental and physical development.”

According to a fact sheet from IPEN, which actively promotes safe chemicals policies and practices, widespread childhood lead exposure retards both childhood development and national economic development. Lead exposure early in life diminishes lifelong intelligence, reduces employment opportunities, earning potentials, and productivity. In the study conducted by researchers at the New York University’s School of Medicine on the economic cost of lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries, lead exposure costs the Philippines more than US$15 billion. This mind-boggling figure exceeds the over US$675 million that our country received in net official development assistance in 2014.

And pay attention to this: Did you know that the annual cost of lead exposure can build 244,000 fully-equipped classrooms in the country where classrooms are sorely lacking?

To promote industrial compliance to the scheduled phase-out of lead-containing paints, the EcoWaste Coalition is actively promoting two complementary initiatives — the Lead Safe Paint Certification Program and the Lead Safe Paint Procurement Policy — to drive consumer demand for compliant paints.

Lead Safe Paint is an independent, third party certification program that lets customers know that the paint they are purchasing contains less than 90 parts per million (ppm) lead — the strictest regulatory standard for lead content in paint established by any government anywhere in the world.

The country’s top two paint manufacturers have totally eliminated lead from their product lines and have, in fact, received Lead Safe Paint certification. Boysen, Nation, Titan and Virtuoso produced by Pacific Paint ( Boysen) Philippines, Inc. and Davies from Davies Paints Philippines, Inc. have been independently certified as lead-safe. On the other hand, De La Salle University-Dasmariñas has adopted a policy requiring the procurement and use of safer products that do not contain lead and mercury. In a letter sent to the school administration, the EcoWaste Coalition said that “the use of lead-safe paints in decorating your school facilities and amenities will help in protecting members of your school community, particularly the young children, women of child-bearing age and the workers, from being exposed to lead in paint, dust, and soil.” It added that “by deliberately choosing to use lead-safe paints now, your university will also save funds that will be needed for properly eliminating lead-based paint hazards in the future.”

As the government’s regulation is not only limited to regulating lead in paint, the EcoWaste Coalition is also paying attention to other prohibited uses of lead, including health-damaging uses that are not explicitly covered by the regulation.

For instance, the EcoWaste Coalition on Nov. 26, 2015 disclosed its discovery of baby cribs with lead-coated ornaments that prompted the regulatory agency to clarify that children’s furniture like baby cradles are subject to the lead in paint restriction. Recently, the group detected lead in promotional backpacks given to children, which led to the voluntary recall of such lead-laden bags last Aug. 26. Only last Sept. 15, the group requested the Food and Drug Administration, which has jurisdiction over candles, to ban and issue a public health warning against lead-colored Chinese candles that are sold in some specialty stores.

These complementary efforts to raise awareness on the hazards of lead and promote remedial actions will certainly help the entire country in addressing this toxic threat to our children’s health and their future. The Philippines has successfully phased out leaded gasoline. We can do the same for lead-containing paints — and truly paint a brighter future for our children and the generations to come.