MEMBERS of the environmental watchdog Ecowaste Coalition inspect toys which are tested for hazardous and toxic substances at their main office in Quezon City. They warn the public in buying toys as Christmas gifts that contain harmful chemicals like lead. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines—Environment and health advocates have hailed a new government regulation that should prevent or at least reduce children’s exposure to hazardous lead in paint and other sources.
EcoWaste Coalition, a network of over 150 environment and health groups, lauded the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for recently promulgating a chemical control order (CCO) regulating the use of lead.
Lead is a “cumulative neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure that is exceptionally harmful to young children” and is described by the World Health Organization as a “scourge to human health for millennia,” EcoWaste said.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje signed the order on Dec. 23 to take effect one month after publication in the Official Gazette or two newspapers of general circulation.
Among its salient provisions that has drawn cheers from environment and health advocates is the prohibition of lead in paint above 90 parts per million, the current US standard for lead in decorative paint, the coalition said.
Aside from setting a maximum permissible lead content in paint, the CCO prescribes a phaseout period of three years for leaded architectural or decorative paint and six years for leaded industrial paint, including automotive and aviation paint, it said.
According to the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint, “children can be severely affected by eating lead-based paint chips, chewing on objects, including toys painted with lead-based paint, and from exposure to dust or soil that contain lead from paint.”
“We laud Secretary Paje for heeding our longstanding appeal for regulatory action to eliminate lead in paint and halt a major source of lead exposure among children,” said Aileen Lucero, EcoWaste national coordinator.
“Finally, we have a legal framework which is sure to energize the ongoing switch to nonlead paint manufacturing that is broadly backed by the government, industry and civil society.” DJ Yap
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