EcoWaste Coalition Detects Lead on Red Painted Garden Tools
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20 September 2024, Quezon City. The EcoWaste Coalition has detected toxic lead on the red paint of garden tools being sold in some online and physical stores.
Taking its cue from a recent recall in North America of children’s garden sets due to lead poisoning hazard, the group bought a few gardening tools from retail stores and online sellers to see if such tools are compliant with the country’s regulation banning lead above 90 parts per million (ppm) in paints and similar surface coatings.
Last September 12, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of Stanley Jr. Kids Wheelbarrow and 7-piece Garden Sets for violation of the federal ban on lead in paint, particularly on the yellow painted long hoe and rake. The recall involved about 459,200 units of the said product in the US and about 60,480 units in Canada.
Based on the chemical screening conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition using an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) device, most of the garden tools it purchased were found compliant with the 90 ppm limit for lead in paint. Out of 20 pieces of assorted tools, lead was not detected on 17 tools coated with blue, green, red and yellow paints – a clear proof that paints can be produced without lead additives.
However, the red paint on one spade and two trowels exceeded the regulatory limit. One red trowel has 9,630 ppm of lead, and the other one has 2,564 ppm. The red spade contains 8,100 ppm.
This is not the first time that the EcoWaste Coalition detected lead in common garden tools. In 2020, laboratory tests contracted by the group found dangerously high levels of lead ranging from 32,300 to 38,600 ppm on the orange paint of five Brazil-made garden tools sold locally.
As these tools are typically used in home, community and school gardening activities, it is very important for manufacturers to ensure that only lead-safe paints are used on such tools, the group emphasized.
Garden tools will surely deteriorate and rust with frequent use, causing the paint to chip and for its lead to get released into the soil. A child can be exposed to lead if the lead-contaminated soil gets into his hands and mouth while gardening or playing in the dirt, the EcoWaste Coalition said.
“Lead affects children more than adults,” as pointed out by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “The potential negative effects of lead are far greater for children than for adults.”
As explained by UNICEF: “A child’s brain grows fastest during the early years of childhood, when thousands of neural connections are made every second. Lead exposure can substantially interfere with this complex, important and delicate process. Infants and young children absorb about 4-5 times more of the lead that enters their bodies than do adults.
“The risk of ingesting lead-contaminated soils and dust is also higher, due to the way children play outdoors and because they are closer to the ground, especially when they are learning to walk and crawl,” UNICEF said.
“There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “Lead affects children’s brain development resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioural changes such as reduced attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment.”
Reference:
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/
http://www.who.int/
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