Lead poisoning prevention
Lead is a toxics metal. Lead in paints is one of the common sources of Lead poisoning amongst children. Young children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable to lead poisoning even at the low concentrations. Exposure to lead can cause hypertension, renal impairment, immune-toxicity and toxicity to the reproductive organs. Absorption of large amounts of lead can cause coma, convulsions and even death. “The-toxic-truthchildren’s-exposure-to-lead-pollution-2020" report jointly produced by UNICEF and Pure Earth, reveals the total economic costs caused by lead exposure underscore the importance of tackling lead exposure as a priority environmental, health and development challenge. Every year more than 5 lakh children are affected due to lead poisoning in paints throughout the world. This has led to a global movement to ban the use of lead in paints.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme observes International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) every year. This year the event will take place on 25–31 October 2020. This week of action is an initiative of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (the Lead Paint Alliance), which is jointly led by the UN Environment Programme and WHO.
The manufacture and sale of lead paint is still permitted in over 60% of countries, presenting a continuing and future source of lead exposure for children and workers. The focus of this year’s week of action is on the need to accelerate progress towards the global phase out of lead paint through regulatory and legal measures.
In India, The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has notified “The Regulation on Lead contents in Household and Decorative Paints Rules, 2016” to restrict the lead content to 90 ppm in the household and decorative paints which has come into force from November 2017. Two years since this law was enacted to check the presence of lead in paints, the studies also showed still paints in the market contain lead over the prescribed limits.
Unfortunately, the samples collected from Tamil Nadu state have the highest concentration of lead content. (Venlac Super synthetic enamel & Alpha Synthetic enamel Paints) And hence ‘Arulagam’ wishes to take a campaign against the excess level of lead content in Coimbatore and The Nilgiris by joining hands with International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). We request the readers to sensitise and support this issue and make a # hashtag campaign. Please trending #BanLeadPaint in your profile picture and in social media. Herewith we attach more details.
There is no safe level of lead exposure. Let us prohibit the paints with lead content.
