Voice of a Painter

In our country, a fairly good number of unorganized sectors of people are working as painters. Knowingly or unknowingly they become victims because of the continuous exposure of the lead paints (spending about 8-10 hours of day). They suffer from the health impacts. In most cases, they are unable to trace their health implications caused by 'lead' contents in paints.

Let us hear it from R. Suresh, painter working in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India:

I am R. Suresh (38) and I have been doing a painting job for the last 18 years. I chose this career at the age of 21 due to lack of education. It was unwilling but the last choice for me to make to keep my survival. The first 4 years of my life as a painter started with hard and complicated work like scraping old paints, looming, mixing lime, and assisting the technical workers. I learned the skills and made that as my profession.

Over the years, I have suffered some known and unknown problems. And I get physical exhaustion, mental depression, loss of appetite, and respiratory problems due to my profession. Noticeably, for the last 4 years, I have lost the ability of smell. After diagnosis, the doctor (Ms.Anandhi Kanagaraj, Homeopathy physician, Mela ponnagaram Street, Madurai -dt, Tamil Nadu) declared that my ability of smell is completely lost and she told that it is evident and a common problem for the painters. She further said that, while scraping old paint (containing lead), lead from paint dust can penetrate the nostrils and cause sensory damage. It was shocking for me to hear that lead content in paint is the cause of my pain. Further, people involved in this task are mostly not very educated and thus do not have much awareness about lead toxicity. It is a pity that they are suffering unknowingly like me.

The paint manufacturers should make sure the paint you produce does not contain lead above permissible limit of lead in the paints. I want to reiterate that we have children and families just like you. And the law enforcement authority needs to take concerted efforts to reach out to these manufacturers. Further, a strict monitoring regime needs to be put in place by the concerned authorities to limit lead from household paints, this is the demand of lakhs and lakhs of painting workers like me. And we also demand the government to pay special attention to this issue and regulate it through intensive monitoring and implement some strict laws. Moreover, intensive awareness campaigns should be organized throughout the country as workers like me need to be cautious and knowledgeable about the lead toxicity in paints.

Save Our Child, Ban Lead Paints. said R. Suresh painter.