Toxics Watchdog Group Urges Mindanao-Based Online Dealers to Stop Selling Leaded Spray Paints

24 March 2021, Quezon City.  Quezon City-based EcoWaste Coalition appealed to dealers of aerosol or spray paints from Mindanao not to sell products containing violative levels of lead through online shopping platforms.
 
The group revealed that three of the 13 spray paints that it had found to contain dangerously high concentrations of lead, a chemical banned in the manufacture of paints, were procured from an online dealer who shipped the items from Davao City.
 
Three variants of F1 Aerosol Paint from the said dealer were among those found by the group with excessively high lead content.  A leaf green F1 spray paint had 56,100 parts per million (ppm) lead, a medium yellow F1 had 50,800 ppm lead and an orange yellow F1 had 11,500 ppm lead.  The manufacturer and country of manufacture of the said products are not written on the label.
 
The group had earlier announced its discovery of more non-compliant paints with lead content ranging from 4,500 to 56,100 ppm, which are way above the total lead content limit of 90 ppm under DENR A.O. 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds.
 
“We appeal to online as well as offline sellers of lead-containing spray paints to discontinue the unlawful sale of such products that goes against the government’s policy of eliminating lead paints,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.  
 
“We likewise appeal to online shopping sites to take down the ads for these non-compliant paints to protect consumers from ordering items that can later pose a risk of lead exposure,” he added. 
 
Environmental health scientist Dr. Geminn Louis C. Apostol explained that “lead paint chips and dust are formed when a surface covered with lead paint ages, peels and breaks.”  He warned that “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,”
 
“Health experts have not determined any level of lead exposure that is deemed safe and without detrimental effects,” said Apostol who is also an Assistant Professor at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health.
 
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 Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers (PAPM), the DENR promulgated A.O. 2013-24 phasing out lead-containing decorative paints in 2016 and lead-containing industrial paints in 2019.
 
The EcoWaste Coalition had so far discovered 50 leaded aerosol paints being sold by online and offline retailers in violation of the country’s lead paint regulation. None of the non-compliant spray paints found by the group was produced by companies belonging to the PAPM.
 
Complete list of the lead-containing spray paints and their lead content:
  1. F1 Aerosol Paint (leaf green), 56,100 ppm
  2. Colorz Chisai Acrylic Spray Paint (lemon yellow), 55, 200 ppm
  3. F1 Aerosol Paint (medium yellow), 50,800 ppm
  4. Veslee Aerosol Paint (lemon yellow), 45,900 ppm
  5. Super 7 Acrylic Spray Paint (yellow), 31,200 ppm
  6. Veslee Aerosol Paint (green grass), 22,400 ppm
  7. Colorz Chisai Acrylic Spray Paint (fresh green), 18,600 ppm
  8. Super 7 Acrylic Spray Paint (leaf green), 13,100 ppm
  9. F1 Aerosol Paint (fluorescent orange yellow), 11,500 ppm
  10. MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (orange), 10,400 ppm
  11. MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (sugar cane), 8,910 ppm
  12. MR. D.I.Y. Spray Paint (apple green), 6,820 ppm
  13. Sanvo Aerosol Paint (green grass), 4,500 ppm

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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