EcoWaste Coalition Alerts Consumers on 168 Imported Spray Paints with Hidden Brain-Damaging Chemical

Lead-containing spray paints from Thailand carry the No Pb pictogram despite their lead content.

14 March 2025, Quezon City. As the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is observed on March 15, the EcoWaste Coalition, a public interest group advocating for a zero waste and toxics-free society, cautioned Filipino consumers from purchasing aerosol paints containing lead additives in violation of the country’s law.

To empower consumers to make informed purchasing decisions, the group circulated an updated version of the “Public Notice on Lead-Containing Paints” co-published by the EcoWaste Coalition with the Philippine Paint and Coatings Association, Inc. (PPCAI) and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). The said notice can be accessed at https://bit.ly/PublicNoticeOnLCP.

The EcoWaste Coalition released the updated notice in time for the WCRD to put emphasis on the importance of providing paint consumers with essential information to enable them to make safe and sound choices, noting that consumers have the rights to be informed, to choose and to be protected against lead-based paint hazards, which can put their health, especially the health of their children, at risk.

“Exposure to lead can cause chronic and debilitating health impacts in all age groups, and children are particularly vulnerable to its neurotoxic effects,” according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Children’s exposure to lead early in life can damage the developing brain and nervous system, causing developmental delays, learning difficulties, lower intelligence quotient (IQ), attention deficit disorder and behavioral problems. “There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” the World Health Organization (WHO) reminded.

The Public Notice currently lists 168 spray paint products representing 39 brands that were screened for lead by the EcoWaste Coalition using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer and subsequently submitted to SGS, a global testing company, for confirmatory tests. The analyzed paints were found to contain lead above 90 parts per million (ppm), the maximum limit for lead in all paints as per the Chemical Control Order (CCO) issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Of the 168 analyzed spray paints, 119 had lead levels exceeding 10,000 ppm. Moreover, 50 of these paints contained a whopping 50,000 ppm to 212,000 ppm of lead, including eight with over 100,000 ppm. These paints were mostly imported from China and Thailand, and none of them were manufactured or distributed by PPCAI-affiliated companies.

Aside from lead, this spray paint from China contains cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and other highly toxic substances as shown on the label.

Thirty-three of the 168 leaded paints were marked “lead free” or carried the "No Pb" symbol, giving consumers a false assurance that such products are safe from lead, a neuro and reproductive toxin and an endocrine disrupting chemical, too.

According to laboratory test reports, the following 39 paint brands have one or more products containing lead above the legal limit of 90 ppm: Anton, Automatic, Bad Axe, Best Drive Extreme One, Boston, Chappie, Colorz, F1, Getsun, Greenfield, Haifei, Howar, JM, JMJAFA, King Sfon, Koby, Korona, KRX, Meng Qi Bo Shi Qi Pai Zidong Penqi, MKT, MR. D.I.Y., Nikko, One Take, Parlux, RMC, RStar, Sanvo, Silvestre, Sinag, Standard, Super7, Tiger, Top Standard, Top Tibay, Veslee, Yandy, Yao Dong Bang, Yatibay, and Yestar Spray Paints.

To protect consumers from lead-containing paints, the EcoWaste Coalition enjoined importers not to bring into the country paints that have not been independently verified as compliant to the 90 ppm lead in paint standard.

Importers should not rely on the “No Pb” and “lead free” claims on the paint cans unless supported by verifiable third-party certification, which should also be publicly accessible.

As for spray paint distributors and dealers, the EcoWaste Coalition urged them to voluntarily withdraw leaded paints from the market and to return the remaining stocks to their suppliers for environmentally sound disposal.

As many of the lead-containing spray paints are being sold by online sellers, the EcoWaste Coalition asked the administrators of e-commerce and social media platforms to take down all product listings for violative paints, warn dealers, and suspend the recidivists.

Since 2020, the EcoWaste Coalition has discovered 205 imported aerosol paints with high lead content as a result of its vigilant market investigation and chemical screening using its XRF device.

While local paint makers, PPCAI affiliated manufacturers in particular, have diligently reformulated their products in compliance with the CCO and seven companies have even secured third-party Lead Safe Paint® certification, leaded paints from abroad continue to get dumped and sold in the marketplace, the EcoWaste Coalition lamented. Hence, the need for strengthened customs checks, for improved compliance monitoring, and for stricter global rules to control the trade of lead-based raw materials in paint manufacturing, as well as finished paint products containing them.

The EcoWaste Coalition is asking the authorities to hold the importers of these leaded paints liable for violating the lead paint ban.

References:

https://bit.ly/PublicNoticeOnLCP
https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/10/72116
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/41486/IssuesReportLeadPaint.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://www.leadsafepaint.org/
https://www.scsglobalservices.com/services/lead-safe-paint