22 March 2021,
Quezon City. A toxics watchdog group
today announced that it has found more spray paints in the market that are
contaminated with dangerously high concentrations of lead, a forbidden chemical
in the manufacture of paints.
In a statement,
the EcoWaste Coalition revealed that 13 spray paints with lead content ranging
from 4,500 to 56,100 parts per million (ppm) are being sold to uninformed
consumers by offline and online retailers in brazen violation of the country’s
lead paint regulation limiting lead to a maximum of 90 ppm.
“Our latest
market investigation conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic netted 13 more spray
paints with exceedingly high levels of lead that can present a serious health
hazard over time,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner, EcoWaste
Coalition. “The authorities need to act with dispatch to ensure that these
dangerous products are removed from the market and returned to their suppliers
for environmentally sound disposal.”
This brings the
total number of lead-containing aerosol paints uncovered by the group to 50,
noting its discovery of 37 violative products last year that were subsequently
banned by the authorities. None of these 50 leaded spray paints was produced by
companies affiliated to the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers
(PAPM).
“Lead paint
chips and dust are formed when a surface covered with lead paint ages, peels
and breaks. Children are exposed to
lead when they eat such paint chips or swallow or breathe in lead dust, which
can affect their developing brains and cause reduced intelligence, learning
ability and attention span, as well as increased risk of behavioral problems
such as aggressiveness, bullying and violence,” said environmental health scientist
Dr. Geminn Louis C. Apostol, Assistant Professor at the Ateneo School of
Medicine and Public Health. “Health
experts have not determined any level of lead exposure that is deemed safe and
without detrimental effects.”
Of the 13 spray
paints bought from offline and online dealers by the EcoWaste Coalition and
submitted to the SGS, a leading testing company, for lead content analysis, 10
were found to contain dangerously high levels of lead exceeding 10,000
ppm. Also, eight of the 13 paints lacked
information about their manufacturers.
Among these
non-compliant spray paints with violative levels of lead are the following:
- F1 Aerosol Spray Paint (leaf green), 56,100
ppm
- Colorz Chisai Acrylic Spray Paint (lemon
yellow), 55, 200 ppm
- F1 Aerosol Spray Paint (medium yellow),
50,800 ppm
- Veslee Aerosol Paint (lemon yellow), 45,900
ppm
- Super 7 Acrylic Spray Paint (yellow), 31,200
ppm
- Veslee Aerosol Paint (green grass), 22,400
ppm
- Colorz Chisai Acrylic Spray Paint (fresh green),
18,600 ppm
- Super 7 Acrylic Spray Paint (leaf green),
13,100 ppm
- F1 Aerosol Spray Paint (fluorescent orange
yellow), 11,500 ppm
- MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (orange), 10,400 ppm
- MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (sugar cane), 8,910
ppm
- MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (apple green), 6,820
ppm
- Sanvo Aerosol Paint (green grass), 4,500 ppm
The EcoWaste
Coalition had notified the authorities about its latest findings. It had also reached out and requested retail
stores to take the violative products off the shelves.
Lead compounds
are used before in paint formulations to add color, quicken the drying process,
inhibit rust, and increase durability, the EcoWaste Coalition said, noting that
most paint manufacturers in the country have
already switched to alternative ingredients to conform to the regulation.
Recognizing
that lead paint is a major source of childhood lead exposure, and that such
exposure causes serious harm to children and other vulnerable groups like women
of child-bearing age and workers, the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) issued in 2013 a groundbreaking policy eliminating
lead-containing paints.
With active
support from the EcoWaste Coalition and the PAPM, the DENR promulgated
Administrative Order 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead
Compounds, which, among other provisions, phased out lead-containing decorative
paints in 2016 and lead-containing industrial paints in 2019.
The DENR, PAPM
and the EcoWaste Coalition are partners of the UN-backed Global Alliance to
Eliminate Lead Paint whose broad objective is to promote a phase-out of the
manufacture and sale of paints containing lead and eventually to eliminate the
risks that such paints pose.
The EcoWaste
Coalition is currently completing a baseline study on the lead content of
solvent-based paints sold and used for industrial applications in the
Philippines, which will be released soon.
Reference:
https://www.who.int/ipcs/assessment/public_health/chemicals_phc/en/
http://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DAO-2013-24-CCO-Lead.pdf
https://www.fda.gov.ph/fda-advisory-no-2020-1585-public-health-warning-against-the-purchase-and-use-of-spray-paints-containing-significant-levels-of-toxic-heavy-metal-lead-pb/
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