EcoWaste Coalition Slams Dumping of Lead-Containing Paints in the Market

The EcoWaste Coalition slams the proliferation of imported paints with high lead content in the market in violation of the lead paint ban.

10 September 2025, Quezon City. Imported paints containing high concentrations of lead, a neurotoxin and endocrine disrupting chemical, continue to enter the country’s ports prompting an environmental health and justice group to deplore the uninhibited dumping of such dangerous products.

The EcoWaste Coalition denounced the illicit trade following its discovery of a new paint brand called Easyman Spray Paint All Purpose Enamel that claims to contain “no Pb” (the chemical symbol for lead from the Latin plumbum) even if it is laden with lead way in excess of the legal limit of 90 parts per million (ppm).

The importation, distribution and sale of lead-containing Easyman Spray Paints violate DENR A.O. 2013-24 banning lead use in paints, the group pointed out. The mislabeling of such paints as containing no lead when in fact it has lead is a deceptive, unfair and unconscionable act that goes against RA 7394 or the Consumer Act of the Philippines, it added. Consumers have the right to be protected against fraudulent claims and unsafe products, as well as the right to be provided with facts needed to make an informed choice, it insisted.

These spray paints  bear the no lead  pictogram despite analytical evidence to the contrary.

EcoWaste purchased the said paints manufactured in June 2025 for P99 to P120 each for 400 cc can from retail stores in Hagonoy, Bulacan and Quezon City and subsequently screened them for lead with the aid of an Olympus Vanta M Series X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), a scientific device.

The label gave no information about the product manufacturer, country of manufacture or local distributor. However, the precautions and usage instructions are provided in English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Thai. The Spanish text, as translated, states that “Easyman Spray Paint is a non-toxic product that does not contain lead.”

In spite of the “no Pb” pictogram and the assurance that it does not contain lead, six colors of Easyman Spray Paint were analyzed to contain lead levels above 90 ppm of which three contained dangerously high lead content surpassing 10,000 ppm such as yellow (over 100,000 ppm), orange (84,900 ppm) and green (65,600 ppm). The signal red, blue and silver red contained 1,577 ppm, 866 ppm and 446 ppm, respectively.

XRF screening finds lead in excess of 100,000 ppm on this yellow Easyman Spray Paint.

The primer gray, rose pink and violet colors, in contrast, screened negative for lead, indicating paints can be formulated without the addition of lead as a pigment, anti-corrosive ingredient and drying agent.

This is not the first time that the EcoWaste Coalition uncovered mislabeled paints with lead levels in excess of the 90 ppm limit. From 2020 to date, the following spray paint brands labeled as "no Pb" or "lead free" were verified to contain violative levels of lead : Easyman, Korona, Sinag, Standard JR, and Tiger.

In light of its latest toxic discovery, the group reiterated the need for stronger measures to ensure that the country’s lead paint ban is upheld and the people's health protected.

Together with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), the EcoWaste Coalition is promoting a decision by the Rotterdam Convention to list lead chromates in its Annex III and make these common pigments in lead paint manufacturing subject to the treaty’s Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure. Under the PIC rules, companies that export listed hazardous chemicals or products that contain them may not ship these commodities to a country that has not consented to receiving them.

So far, Cameroon, Morocco and Switzerland have filed notifications nominating lead chromates for inclusion in the Rotterdam Convention, which the Philippines ratified in 2006.

References:

https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DAO-2013-24-CCO-Lead.pdf
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1992/04/13/republic-act-no-7394-s-1992/
https://www.ipen.org/site/listing-lead-chromates-under-rotterdam-convention