Parents warned against lead-tainted school supplies

MANILA, Philippines - As school opening draws near, a watchdog group yesterday warned parents to be cautious when buying their children school items containing lead, a chemical that can reduce intelligence.

EcoWaste Coalition found high concentrations of the brain-damaging poison in school items bought from retailers in Manila and Quezon City after analyzing the products with an x-ray fluorescence (XRF) device.

The group reported dangerous levels of lead – up to 5,752 ppm (parts per million) in kiddie backpacks, 3,347 ppm in lunch bags and over 100,000 ppm in reusable water containers.

These levels are way above the US limit of 90 ppm for lead in paint and surface coatings of several school items.

“Parents should be extra careful when buying products that are designed to aid a child’s development, but could ironically contribute to reduced intelligence and school performance due to their secret lead content,” said Thony Dizon, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect.

“We should assert the right of our children to school supplies with no hazardous ingredients that can endanger their health,” he added.

EcoWaste Coalition also noted that health experts have not determined a level of lead exposure that may be deemed safe for developing children and fetuses.

“There is no such thing as safe level of lead exposure for vulnerable kids whose brains and other vital organs are still immature,” warned Bessie Antonio, a pediatric toxicologist at the East Avenue Medical Center.

“Lead interferes with the crucial development of a child’s brain and the damage caused by chronic, low-level exposure to lead is irreversible and untreatable, with life-long impact. Studies indicate that damage to a child’s developing brain happens even if there are no obvious signs of lead poisoning,” she added.

The World Health Organization also said “there is no tolerable weekly intake for lead” while the European Safety Authority Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain warned that “there is no evidence for a threshold for critical lead-induced effects.”

“Since there is no safe level of childhood lead exposure, we must do all in our power to exterminate all preventable sources of lead,” Dizon said.

“We have removed leaded gasoline through the Clean Air Act. It’s high time that we act on other sources of lead pollution,” he added.