EcoWaste Coalition Blasts Continued Sale of Leaded Spray Paints
The toxics watchdog group EcoWaste Coalition has deplored the unrelenting sale of bright colored spray paints with high lead content despite the national ban on such paints. Ironically, these leaded paints are being marketed as lead-free.
Based on the test buys it conducted last Monday, May 1, the EcoWaste Coalition found seven old and new variants of Sinag Spray Paints on sale in Caloocan City in violation of the country’s ban on the use of lead in all types of paints as per DENR Administrative Order 2013-24 or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds.
One of the items purchased was a medium yellow Sinag Spray Paint, which the government banned in 2020, along with 36 other aerosol paints, for exceeding the 90 parts per million (ppm) lead content limit.
Notwithstanding their lead content, the old 400 ml. “Sinag Spray Paint” carries the “no Pb” pictogram (Pb is the chemical symbol for lead), while the new 250 ml. “Sinag Paint Aerosol” is labeled “lead free.”
The old variants, sold for a discounted price of P66.50 each (P95.00 before), were manufactured in 2020 and the new variants costing P68.00 each were manufactured in 2021 and 2022, way past the phase-out deadlines for lead-containing decorative paints in 2016 and lead-containing industrial paints in 2019.
Both the old and new variants provided no information about the company that manufactured, imported or placed the product in the local market, as well as the country where the product was made.
According to independent laboratory tests commissioned by the EcoWaste Coalition in 2022, nine Sinag paints were among the 85 analyzed spray paint products with lead content ranging from 1,700 to 85,800 ppm.
Lead is a toxic metal used in paint manufacturing to give the paint its color, make the paint opaque, protect the paint from degradation due to exposure to sunlight, make the paint dry faster, and to inhibit rust or corrosion. Alternatives to lead-based pigments, driers and anti-corrosive agents are commercially available and have been used to produce lead-safe paints.
As stated in the 2022 report “Imported Lead-Containing Spray Paints Sold in the Philippine Market” published by the EcoWaste Coalition and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), “socially responsible paint manufacturers have shifted to non-lead pigments, driers, and anti-corrosive agents in order to prevent children’s exposure to lead from paints, as well as to reduce workers’ exposures to lead-based paint hazards."
According to the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint, “lead can cause serious impacts on human health, including permanent brain and nervous system damage, problems with kidney function, and blood and reproductive damage,” adding “children under six years of age, and pregnant women (whose developing fetus can be exposed) are especially vulnerable.”
To protect vulnerable populations from lead exposure, the EcoWaste Coalition urged 1) paint manufacturers, importers and distributors to only offer duly verified lead-safe products, 2) retailers to only stock paints with no added lead and to take wrongly labeled lead-free paints off the shelves, 3) online shopping platforms to delist non-compliant paint product listings, 4) consumers to ask for and use lead-safe paints, and 5) contractors, workers and others to refrain from disturbing surfaces coated with leaded paints and to observe proper lead-based paint removal to avoid scattering lead-containing paint chips and dust.
The EcoWaste Coalition is campaigning for a zero waste and toxics-free society where communities enjoy a healthy and safe environment.
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