Global Health Groups Say: “Finish the Job - Ban Lead Paint to Protect Children’s Health!”

IPEN and more than 60 of its member groups from 37 countries will join the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (GAELP), a joint program of WHO and UNEP, for International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) this October 20-26, emphasizing the urgent need to protect children’s health through global action to eliminate the use of lead paint. IPEN is a founding member of the Alliance and a member of its Advisory Board. 

Ahead of the week of action, IPEN released new data showing the unregulated global trade of lead chromates, the key lead-based ingredient in lead paints. The report notes a double-standard being perpetrated by some wealthy countries. In these nations where lead paints are banned, lead chromates cannot be added to paint, but some of these countries continue to allow production and exports of lead chromates. IPEN is calling for listing of lead chromates under the Rotterdam Convention, which would give countries the right to know when lead chromates are being imported and thus the right to refuse imports.

“While lead paint was banned decades ago by many countries, in most of the world, lead paint is still used and poses lifelong health threats to millions of children,” said Manny Calonzo, a former IPEN Co-Chair and lead developer of IPEN’s Lead Safe Paint® certification program. “We must address the double-standard that allows wealthy countries to export lead chromates and regulate this toxic trade. It’s time to finish the job and ban lead paint to stop this poisoning of our children.”

See the full listing of IPEN member groups’ activities for ILPPW.

Since 2009, IPEN member groups have conducted more than 100 studies on more than 5,000 paints from 59 countries, demonstrating that lead paints are still widely sold in low- and middle-income countries and leading to new paint regulations in more than 30 countries.

Data from the IPEN report on lead chromates shows that even though the EU and India have banned lead paint, they remain exporters of lead chromates, putting the recipient countries’ children and families at risk. The data show that

• Between 2020-22, EU exports of lead chromates went to 75 countries, including at least 35 countries that have banned lead paint.
• India’s exports in the same period went to 85 (or 78?) countries, including 44 countries that have banned lead paint.

The Rotterdam Convention requires countries that are Parties to the Convention to ensure that certain hazardous chemicals are only exported to a country that has given its explicit consent, through a so-called Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure. By listing lead chromates under the Convention’s PIC procedure, countries that ban lead paint will be better equipped to enforce their ban, and countries without lead paint restrictions will be incentivized to adopt a ban.

Decades of evidence has shown that there is no safe level of exposure to lead. Lead is a potent poison that affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children. Even at low doses, lead can affect children’s brain development, resulting in reduced IQ, behavioral changes such as reduced attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment. Lead exposure can also damage the kidneys, reproductive organs, and the immune system and result in anemia and hypertension. The neurological and behavioral effects of lead are typically irreversible.

To end the use of lead paint, IPEN is calling for:

• National, multi-stakeholder actions to adopt regulations banning the use of lead in all paint. National bans should include all types of paint as recommended by the UNEP Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint.

• Listing of lead chromate under the Rotterdam Convention. 

• Ongoing monitoring and enforcement of existing lead paint regulations. National lead paint bans should include provisions for enforcement and consequences for non-compliance.

• Stronger action from the paint industry. Paint producers must put the health of children and families first, and adopt practices to end their sales of lead paint. Companies can adopt the Lead Safe Paint® standard, an independent, third-party certification, to assure consumers that their products do not contain added lead.

• Additional resources dedicated to global lead paint elimination. This includes support for GAELP to continue to assist national governments in developing and implementing lead paint regulations, and support for strategic activities in countries. 

Despite some progress, more work to ban lead paint globally is urgently needed. Even in countries where lead paint has been banned, older housing with lead paint continues to result in lead-related health problems for millions of children. That is why action to eliminate lead paint globally is urgent – lead paints sold today will continue to pose health threats to children for decades.