Gov’t urged: Tighten customs checks on paint imports

MANILA, Philippines — A toxics watchdog group urged customs authorities Tuesday to tighten controls to bar the entry of paint products that do not conform with the country‘s strict lead paint regulation. 

In an earlier statement sent to reporters, the EcoWaste Coalition disclosed that it found some 13 aerosol paints from abroad that tested positive for dangerously high concentrations of lead with a lead content up to 56,100 parts per million.

According to the group, the products were found being "sold to uninformed consumers" by offline and online retailers despite the country’s regulations banning lead above 90 ppm in paints.

“The authorities need to act with dispatch to ensure that these dangerous products are removed from the market and returned to their suppliers for environmentally sound disposal,” Thony Dizon, chemical safety campaigner for the coalition said in a separate statement Tuesday.  

“The Bureau of Customs, with guidance from concerned health and trade regulators, can stop the entry of non-compliant paint products by strengthening import controls," the group also said, warning that the continued sale of such products could only present a serious health hazard over time.

Of the 13 spray paints bought from offline and online dealers by the group, 10 were found to contain dangerously high levels of lead exceeding 10,000 ppm, while eight of the 13 lacked information about their manufacturers.  

This brings the total number of imported lead-containing aerosol paints uncovered by the group to 50, after the group also tallied 37 similarly violative products last year that were subsequently banned by the authorities.

The EcoWaste Coalition in its statement said it has since notified the authorities about its latest findings and reached out to retail stores to take the products off shelves.

None of the 50 violative products was produced by companies belonging to the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers, the coalition added.

“Lead paint chips and dust are formed when a surface covered with lead paint ages, peels and breaks...Health experts have not determined any level of lead exposure that is deemed safe and without detrimental effects,” said Dr. Geminn Louis Apostol, an environmental health scientist and assistant professor at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health. 

"Children are exposed to lead when they eat such paint chips or swallow or breathe in lead dust, which can affect their developing brains and cause reduced intelligence, learning ability and attention span, as well as increased risk of behavioral problems such as aggressiveness, bullying and violence."

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued in 2013 a policy recognizing that lead paint is a major source of childhood lead exposure eliminating lead-containing paints.

The department's Administrative Order 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds, which, among other provisions, phased out lead-containing decorative paints in 2016 and lead-containing industrial paints in 2019.

— Franco Luna