KIDAPAWAN CITY – The EcoWaste Coalition has appealed to dealers of aerosol or spray paints in Mindanao not to sell products containing dangerously high levels of lead.
The environmental 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.
It had 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 the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds.
“We appeal to online and 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. 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,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner of the EcoWaste Coalition.
Environmental health scientist Dr. Geminn Louis Apostol also 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. (Rhoderick Benez contributed to this report.)
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