This was following a proposal jointly put forward by Toxics Link (TL), Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) and the United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA) to remove lead from paint. Earlier, another such global partnership had succeeded in ridding the world of lead from gasoline.
Toxics Link with three earlier studies on presence of lead in toys, paints and household dust undertook a global study on lead in paints in partnership with International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN). ICCM2, which is an intergovernmental body consisting of 162 countries endorsed a global partnership to promote the phasing out of lead in paints and invited all stakeholders to become partnership member.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Health Organisation (WHO) will host the Partnership, within their respective mandates, to serve as the partnership’s Secretariat, and the partnership to report back on progress to ICCM3. However despite promises made, the Indian paint industry continues to poison children here with lead based paints even though such paints are impossible to sell in Europe and the US for over 50 years.
A study released by Toxics Link last week also reveals high concentration of lead in all the popular brands across the 10 countries the study covered namely, India, Sri Lank, Philippines, Thailand, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Belarus, Mexico and Brazil. Welcoming the outcome Mr. Ravi Agarwal, Director, Toxics Link, emphasized the importance of this meeting and it’s implications, “Clearly the exposure, which has a variety of devastating irreversible health impacts, including lowering of IQ across populations, and recognized across the globe as one of the most significant sources of heavy metal has unfortunately been left un - addressed and is not being dealt with adequately.”
Over 40 % of the world’s children have blood lead levels that exceed WHO standards, and 97% of them live in developing countries. Even a century after the debilitating impacts of lead exposure were recognized, children and workers across the world suffer irreversible loss of IQ and other impacts owing to lead exposure. One of the most important sources of exposure to lead today is paints and in developing nations due to lax laws and industry’s double standards.
The Indian voluntary standard still stands at 1000 ppm (0.1 percent) and the US regulatory standard sets it at 90/600 ppm. The Indian standard is voluntary in nature. It needs to be revised and made mandatory with immediacy. However even by the lax Indian standard, Indian paints exceed this by several times.