Wanted: Leaders versus lead

Recently, lead has been a burning topic in media, with many an alarming story on lead contamination. Yes, we do take in trace amounts of some heavy metals (copper, zinc, etc.), but at high levels, these could be dangerous. Over time, we accumulate heavy metals and this can lead to serious illness and even premature death. The environmental load of heavy metal toxins is the high price we pay for industrialization, notes Buzzle.com.

Taking the lead is lead, which is mostly found in lead-based paints and airborne lead-containing particulates. Lead can lead to a decline in mental, cognitive, and physical health. Of particular concern are the children, whose brains and nervous systems are more sensitive than adults’ and whose growing bodies absorb more lead.

And now, parents will be pleased to know that seven presidential candidates have vowed to work for the elimination of lead, a toxic metal in paints.

These are: Senator Noynoy Aquino, Senator Manny Villar, Senator Dick Gordon, Senator Jamby Madrigal, councilor JC de los Reyes, environmentalist Nicky Perlas, and evangelist Eddie Villanueva who vote for lead-free paints to promote the health and well-being of Filipino children.

The EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace announced the third installment of the Green Electoral Initiative (GEI) survey results to coincide with World Health Day last April 7, underscoring the presidential candidates’ positions and plans on chemical pollution and consumer safety issues.

And the winners are: Perlas ranked first with 9.1 points, followed by Gordon, 7.9; Villanueva, 6.98; Madrigal, 6.26; Villar, 6.16; Aquino, 5.14; and de los Reyes, 1.8.  The other two candidates — former President Erap Estrada and Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro — did not respond to the survey, thus failed to earn their brownie, er, green points.

Says Manny Calonzo of the EcoWaste Coalition and the International POPs Elimination Network, a global NGO network that has initiated a campaign to put children’s health first and eliminate lead paint, “Eliminating lead in paints is key to reducing lead hazards in the environment and in preventing childhood lead exposure and poisoning. We are thrilled to learn that our presidential candidates are one with us in our advocacy to ensure our children’s health and safety from lead.”

Ines Fernandez of Arugaan and Save Babies Coalition says this is certainly no kidstuff. “We’ve already phased out lead in gasoline.  It’s high time for the national government to now cut the largest source of lead exposure for our children — lead in paint — and vigorously push for an industry shift to kid-safe, non-toxic alternatives.”

 “Children are particularly vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of lead, and even relatively low levels of exposure can cause serious and, in some cases, irreversible neurological damage,” says the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead in Paints, an international partnership jointly coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization.  

According to UNEP and WHO, lead has caused extensive environmental contamination, human exposure, and health problems, including neurologic, hematologic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal system ailments.

Here’s how the presidential bets voted against lead:

• Gordon, Madrigal, and Villar took note of the health and environmental hazards posed by lead in paints. Gordon stressed, “We cannot allow toxins that severely affect human health — and intellectual capacity at that — to proliferate.”

• Perlas and Villanueva: Alternatives to lead in paints do exist, “but we need a strong consumer protection agency that is free from inappropriate industry influence — one that involves civil society participation.”

• Perlas, Gordon, Villanueva, and Madrigal get more votes from the committed environmentalists for putting forward proposals on how to integrate chemical safety into the country’s health, environment, and development agenda such as through consumer information and education, product labeling, and public disclosure of chemicals in materials, products, and wastes.

A gem of an environmentalist, Perlas emphasized the need to address not only the harmful chemicals in consumer products but also the toxins in agriculture, energy, and mining sectors, while also underlining the need to heighten consumer awareness regarding the importance of reading and understanding the labels placed on food products.

• For his part, Gordon declares, “(I will) require manufacturers to fully and properly disclose and register on a publicly accessible registry linked to other similar registries in other countries the chemical components of their raw materials, consumer products, and wastes, and make exposures to the general public of toxic substances become an issue of consumer safety, and work with Congress to amend existing environmental and consumer protection laws.”

• Villanueva proposed the creation of a broad chemicals safety information network that will make provide info on chemicals, their properties, and their safe handling and management to thoroughly penetrate the public consciousness.

• In addition to issuing an executive order on chemical safety, Madrigal pledged to initiate a review on the country’s policy on poison control and regulation.

For more WHO/UNEP information on lead in paint: visit http://www.who.int/ipcs/features/pb_alliance/en/index.html.

Meanwhile, The EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace has also disclosed the sec-ond installment of the 2010 Green Electoral Initiative (GEI) survey results, this time focusing on the issue of ecological solid waste management.

According to the survey, seven of the nine presidential bets vote for an outright or eventual ban on single-use plastic bags and other plastic-based disposable containers, which have been largely blamed for clogging waterways and causing floods and ocean pollution.

And these seven candidates are: Sen. Noynoy Aquino, Sen. Dick Gordon, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Sen. Manny Villar, councilor JC de los Reyes, environmentalist Nicky Perlas, and evangelist Eddie Villanueva. Again, scoring zero are former President Erap Estrada and Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro who failed to respond to the survey.

Plastic ain’t fantastic, so agree these presidentiables who cited the obvious issue of wastefulness as well as the ecological harm resulting from the unchecked disposal of plastic trash in dumpsites, storm drains, and water bodies.

To curb plastic bag consumption in the country, some of the candidates proposed the imposition of taxes and disincentives, maximizing plastic waste recovery, reusing, and recycling.

Says Roy Alvarez, EcoWaste Coalition president, “The expressed intent of the seven presidential bets to act against plastics pollution should send a strong signal to the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) about the urgent need to impose a policy that will effectively phase out and ultimately ban single-use plastic bags. The Commision has been remiss in performing this mandate, opting to kowtow instead to the the vested interests of plastic manufacturers.”

“Together with the front-end approaches of waste segregation, composting and recycling, prohibiting and deterring the use of plastic bags and other environmentally unsound packaging will considerably reduce the volume of waste and help avert a host of associated environmental problems,” Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Von Hernandez points out.

In addition, Perlas presented a five-point action plan, thus: 1) accelerating the adoption of zero waste management, 2) restructuring the whole garbage disposal system to enable segregation at source, composting of organic wastes, recycling of non-biodegradable wastes, and proper

disposal of toxic wastes (including medical wastes), 3) establishing strategic partnerships with civil society and business, 4) highlighting and rewarding cities and towns that have exemplary solid waste management systems, and 5) instituting a well thought-out system of taxes and incentives that can address the challenge of plastic wastes and promote sustainable waste management.

Now, let’s all vote for the elimination of lead and plastic wastes from our lives forever.

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