EcoWaste warns consumers on toxic school supplies

Environmental group EcoWaste Coalition warned consumers against toxic school supplies being sold in Divisoria, Manila, two days after government officials conducted an inspection in the area and approved the bargain buys.

EcoWaste Coalition announced on Monday that they discovered toxic content in school supplies mostly bought in Divisoria in April and May.

These harmful substances included neurotoxin lead, and carcinogens cadmium and phthalates, said Aileen Lucero, of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect, in a statement.

But a price monitoring operation in Tutuban Mall conducted last Friday by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Education, the Department of Health-Food and Drug Administration and the Manila city government yielded no such threats.

In fact, the government officials, led by DTI Secretary Gregory

Domingo and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, hailed the Divisoria stock as “reasonably priced” after discovering that they were priced P2 to P3 lower than the state-suggested retail prices.

Prices of school supplies in Divisoria, including notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, ball pens and crayons, ranged only from P40 to P150.

But Lucero insisted consumers still have cause for worry. After three separate tests with an X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometer, EcoWaste found that nine out of 25 school supplies and 11 of 14 raincoats registered lead content ranging from 229 parts per million  to 9,475 ppm. Three of the raincoats also registered for cadmium up to 254 ppm.

Four of five school supplies subjected to laboratory Gas Chromatographic-Mass Spectrometry overshot the phthalate safety limit, with one sample having 35.86 percent of di-iso-nonyl phthalate, she added.

Under the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the limit for total lead concentration in products is 90 ppm, 75 ppm for soluble cadmium, and 0.1 percent for phthalates, Lucero said.

Lucero urged consumers to read labels carefully and avoid plastic polyvinyl chloride items since phthalates are usually added to PVC for more elasticity.

Another simple rule of thumb is to “refrain from buying products with strong chemical smell and painted parts,” she said.

Domingo had said their inspections were meant to ensure that supplies are sold within the suggested retail prices; that they comply with quality standards and labeling requirements; and that their chemical contents are within safe limits.