7 May 2024, Quezon City.  The toxics watchdog group EcoWaste Coalition today announced that seven more imported paint products failed laboratory tests for lead content and should therefore be withdrawn from the market at once.

Based on the analyses carried out by SGS, a global testing company, seven products submitted by the EcoWaste Coalition last April exceeded the 90 parts per million (ppm) limit for lead in paint as specified under the DENR-issued Chemical Control Order (CCO) for lead and its compounds.

Laboratory tests confirm lead in excess of 90 parts per million (ppm) on these seven imported paints

According to test results, the orange-yellow Anton Spray Paint contained 25,400 ppm of lead.  The group bought the product imported from China for P60 from a retail store at 999 Shopping Center in Manila.

The light yellow and wool beige Nikko Spray Paints were found to contain 1,170 ppm and 2,820 ppm of lead, respectively.  The group ordered the Thailand-made items from online dealers for P133 and P135 each.

Lead was also detected on cream yellow, peach red, grain yellow, and Toyota white Yandy Spray Paints measured at 418 ppm, 1,070 ppm, 1,530 ppm, and 2,380 ppm, respectively.  The China-made products were obtained from online sellers for P53 to P88 each.

To date, the EcoWaste Coalition has detected violative levels of lead on five variants of Anton Spray Paint (grass green, refrigerator green, Gongcheng orange-red, medium yellow and orange-yellow), eight variants of Nikko Spray Paint (wool beige, apple green, grass green, green, orange, light yellow, medium yellow, and yellow), and 15 variants of Yandy Spray Paint (apple green, blackish green, fresh green, leaf green, Shifeng green, Jialing red, peach red, Suzuki red, canary yellow, cream yellow, grain yellow, medium yellow, orange yellow, violet, and Toyota white).

“The nonstop importation of leaded spray paints violates our country’s regulation banning lead-containing paints, an important source of lead exposure, along with lead-contaminated dust and soil, among children and other vulnerable groups like workers and women of reproductive age,” said Manny Calonzo, Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.  “The authorities need to go after the culprits and impose the necessary fines and penalties to make the marketplace, including e-commerce sites, free of such non-compliant paint products, and thus protect the public health.”

“The flagrant trade of lead-containing paints points to the need for improved compliance promotion, compliance monitoring, and enforcement activities, which are required to effectively implement the CCO,” said Jeiel Guarino, Global Lead Paint Elimination Campaigner, International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN).  “As the non-compliant paints are mostly coming from abroad, new measures need to be put in place to control the trade of lead chromates, the most common pigments used in lead paint, and the paints containing them.”

IPEN and many of its participating organizations like the EcoWaste Coalition are campaigning for the listing of lead chromates as hazardous chemicals subject to the Rotterdam Convention’s Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure.  If listed, companies exporting lead chromates or paints containing them may not ship these commodities to a country that has not consented to receiving them. Also, countries can use the PIC rules to restrict or prevent the entry of lead chromates and paints that contain them.  Doing so will make it easier for countries like the Philippines to enforce their lead paint laws and this, in turn, will encourage more countries to adopt lead paint controls.

According to a fact sheet published by the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (Lead Paint Alliance), a voluntary partnership led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent human exposure to lead, “lead is a multisystem toxicant for which no safe level of exposure has been identified.”

“Lead exposure can cause chronic and debilitating health impacts in all age groups, but it is particularly harmful to young children. This is because their developing nervous systems can be damaged by lead, resulting in reduced cognitive abilities, poor educational attainment, attention deficit disorder and antisocial behavior. In adults, lead exposure can cause hypertension, renal impairment and damage to the reproductive organs,” the Lead Paint Alliance said.

References:

https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DAO-2013-24-CCO-Lead.pdf
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/29520/LiP_Factsheet.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
https://ipen.org/site/listing-lead-chromates-under-rotterdam-convention