While the
global use of lead has decreased, paint sold across Asia still contains
excessive levels of the toxic substance. Meanwhile, awareness of the risks and
health consequences from lead exposure remains inadequate.
With the
almost complete phase-out of leaded petrol worldwide, attention has turned to
other sources of lead exposure and its deadly effect on humans. Statistics from
a 2013 New York University report on the cost of lead exposure to the economies
of developing countries reveal that consumption of the damaging element has
increased since 1970, despite the fact that lead petrol has been almost
entirely phased out.
One way
that people who, despite having no connection to industries where they might be
directly exposed to lead are still consuming huge amounts of it, is through
paint.
Lead is
used in paint because it makes it less susceptible to cracking and increases
its opacity. It is also used to intensify colors, meaning the brighter the
color of the paint the higher concentrations of lead it is likely to have. Lead
is also used to speed up drying times and to stop rust.
But the
danger doesn't start until years after the paint has dried and begins to wear.
Dust from paint flakes or the sanding of painted surfaces creates lead-filled
particles that can be inhaled, and collect in people's systems.
Dr Sara
Brosché from IPEN, a global organization working to eliminate toxic substances
around the world, says the reasons why lead is still being used in Asia are a
lack of knowledge of the dangers and a reluctance to change, "because that
is how they have always done it."
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An expanding middle class means more
people will be able to afford to paint their
homes |
While
globally the paint industry has contracted, the opposite has occurred in Asia
which is now the biggest paint market in the world. Brosché says that while low
income earners typically do not live in painted homes, "with rising
incomes and an emerging middle class, the number of people who can afford
painted interiors and exteriors in their homes and schools has been increasing
dramatically."
According
to the World Health Organization (WHO), just 30 countries have completely
phased out the use of lead in paints, and most other places have some sort of
guidelines around the substance. The "Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead
Paint" run by the WHO and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) aims to raise
that figure to 70 by next year.
Meanwhile
figures from the European Union and IPEN's 2014 Asia Regional Paint Report show
that while countries such as the Philippines have introduced regulations,
overwhelmingly paints sold in Asia still contain excessive lead levels.
Worse
still, Brosché says none of the paints found to contain lead in the research
had any warnings on their labels.
Despite
industry making up the majority of users of high lead products in Asia, the
problem is exacerbated by the fact that industrial and residential living areas
are growing geographically closer together. This has been highlighted in China,
with a series of cases in recent years of mass lead poisonings, with the
victims living nearby to factories.
Even
cookware has been shown to contain lead. Published in August of this year a
study by Ashland University in the United States revealed the excessive amounts
of lead that can leach out of metal used for cooking when it is heated up.
Across Africa and Asia cookware and utensils made of scrap metal are
commonplace, and can include parts from cars and materials used in
construction.
The
report's authors refer to the high numbers of people exposed to lead as a
"global lead poisoning epidemic," and stress that cookware is just
one of a number of factors contributing to lead exposure.
Lead's
burden
Even
limited contact with lead, at levels earlier regarded safe by the WHO and
without any external symptoms, can cause irreversible health consequences.
These can include kidney damage, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of
cardiovascular diseases. Pregnant women with a build up of lead in their
systems can pass on toxic side effects to their unborn children.
However, it
is young children who are most at risk. A report from the New York-based
environmental research organization the Blacksmith Institute showed that many
children who were exposed to lead during their childhoods grew up to have lower
IQs, and that this and other damage to the brain "is permanent and
irreversible and that there is no current form of medical treatment that can
reverse the brain injury caused by lead once this injury has occurred."
High levels
of lead exposure can cause comas, convulsions and even death, with children who
survive these conditions likely left with permanent physical and mental injury.
The WHO
attributes around 600,000 new cases of intellectual disabilities in children to
lead exposure every year.
In a study
published in 2013 by New York University, the total cost to Asia's economy was
calculated at around 700 billion USD, compared to 134.7 billion USD in Africa
and 142.3 billion USD in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report's authors
say East and Southeast Asia make up the bulk of this shortfall, and the
"burden of lead-associated disability and economic cost is now borne by
developing countries."
The
cheapest public health intervention
While
regulations around lead were introduced in most parts of the world in the 1970s
and 80s, a 2012 UNEP and IPEN survey showed large parts of Asia continued to
ignore or under-regulate the issue.
The 2014
report on the Asia lead paint elimination project states that "a few
countries in Asia do regulate the allowed lead content in decorative
paints," including Singapore and Sri Lanka. Other places have voluntary
standards, such as Thailand whose regulation calls for paints to include less
than 100 parts per million (ppm) of lead. But tests conducted by the Ecology
Alert and Recovery Thailand Foundation showed that despite the alleged checks,
most paints still contained levels higher than this.
Other
experts say the problem is the developing world is always playing catch-up, and
the infrastructure needed to test and properly regulate the use of lead across
the country just doesn't exist.
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Many developing countries don't have
the infrastructure to test and regulate
the use of lead |
Low public
awareness is another factor stopping manufacturers from switching from lead to
less dangerous additives. Johnson Ongking, vice-president of one of Indonesia's
largest paint companies, Boysen Paints, agrees with this, admitting they simply
didn't realize the danger. "Honestly, we just weren't that aware of the
hazards of lead in paint." Since 2007 the company has phased out lead
completely from its range.
Jack
Weinberg, Senior Policy Advisor with IPEN is more blunt. He says there is one
reason the issue hasn't yet been solved: laziness.
He dismisses
the argument that using lead saves money on production costs for manufacturers,
saying the savings are marginal at best.
Research
from IPEN's Regional Paint Report supports this view, calling the costs
involved in reformulating paints to avoid adding lead "minimal."
Their research showed the majority of suppliers that had eliminated the deadly
element hadn't raised the price of their paints.
Weinberg
says intervention now will save costs in the long run. "Eliminating lead
paint is about the cheapest public health intervention with the greatest public
health benefit imaginable."
Dr Leonardo
Trasande has a similiar view. The expert says that in order to avoid future
complications arising from childhood lead exposure - such as continuing medical
care - action must be taken now. "The only way to avoid the large economic
costs related to lead exposure is primary prevention," he says.
According
to IPEN the best way to get rid of lead in paint once and for all is through
binding legal requirements, company-mandated action and national certification
schemes in each country. Brosché is also confident. "It is absolutely
possible to eliminate dangerous levels of lead in paint," she says.
