Inhouse painting[photo/crownpaints.co.ke]According to a report by an international organization promoting safe and sustainable chemical use, paints containing high levels of lead dangerous to children is widely available in 15 countries, including Kenya.
The new study, Lead in Solvent-Based Paints for Home Use found out that more than half of all paints analysed in a new study on lead in decorative paints contained lead levels illegal in most of the developed world (more than 90 ppm) and more than a quarter of the paints contained dangerously high lead levels (more than 10,000 ppm).
Few paint packages had labels providing consumers information about lead content in paints or dangers associated with lead exposure. The health impact of lead exposure on young children’s brains is lifelong, irreversible and untreatable.
As much as safe and effective alternatives are readily available, we are limiting our children and nation’s future intellectual development and we must reduce this critical source of lead exposure to young children.
Data from a lead paint study in Kenya, conducted this year was included in the report that established more than 70 percent of paint brands used in homes contained dangerously high levels of lead. The study further revealed that one yellow paint advertised as “lead-free” contained lead levels as high as 16 percent of the paint.
The lead levels were almost 1,800 times the allowed limit of 0.009 percent established in many countries and the maximum allowed level in two paint standards adopted by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).
The standards are yet to be gazetted. As part of the week of Action also released a comprehensive review of lead in paint sold around the world. This report found that a quarter of all paints analyzed in 50 out of the 54 countries studied in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, contains lead levels dangerous to children.