Africa
decorating homes, schools and children’s
toys,” said Muchai.
The Unep official cited new research
by the New York University, which
shows that the economic cost of lead
poisoning in South Africa could be as
high as $17.7 billion, an equivalent of
3. 17 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The research estimates the economic
cost in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya at
$4.47 billion, $4.14 billion and $3.76 billion respectively which is an equivalent of
4.73 percent, 6.06 percent and 5. 26 percent respectively.
She said Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire
have a slightly lower economic cost of
lead poisoning at $2.52 billion and $1.76
billion respectively.
“The loss of IQ in children has enormous economic cost with low to middle
income countries losing roughly $977
billion a year from lead poisoning with
Africa losing an estimated $135 billion,”
she said.
Muchai said in Ethiopia the govern-
ment of Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn “is now in the process of de-
veloping draft regulation for consid-
eration by the Ethiopian Council of
Ministries that would establish a 90
parts per million (ppm) standard for
decorative paints.”
She said the standard is based on a
recommendation from the Ethiopian
Standards Agency, which has consulted
the paint industry on lead poisoning
and that the standard “is based on the
outcome of the East Africa Sub-regional
Workshop on the Establishment of Legal
Limits on Lead in Paint held in Addis
Ababa in December 2015.”
In Kenya, Muchai said the country’s
standards regulator, the Kenya Bureau
of Standards (KEBS) is working on es-
tablishing the 90 ppm standard for lead
in paint which is also based on the out-
come of the last year’s the Addis Ababa-
held East Africa Sub-regional Workshop
on the establishment of legal limits on
lead in paint.
Tanzania is another Eastern Africa
country which through its Tanzania
Bureau of Standards (TBS) is also work-
ing on establishing a 90 ppm standard for
lead in paint based on the same standard
like that of Ethiopia and Kenya.
Global efforts to eliminate lead paint
are being spearheaded by Lead Paint
Alliance, an initiative jointly led by World
Health Organization and Unep. The initiative has a target of ensuring all countries adopt a legally binding law on lead
poisoning by 2020.
It also hopes to ensure all paint manufacturers have eliminated the use of added lead “in priority areas” by 2020.
AkzoNobel and the International
Paint and Printers Ink Council are some
of the advisory group members in the
Lead Paint Alliance.
Several approaches are being used in
securing the cooperation of governments
and manufacturers in eliminating use of
added lead in paint according to Muchai.
These include encouraging the paints and
coatings industry to voluntarily stop the
manufacture and sale of lead in paint,
convincing governments without existing legislation to enact lead paint laws by
overcoming possible barriers, recognizing elements of success of existing laws
that could be incorporated into ongoing
efforts by countries and input /advice/ad-vocacy to get lead paint on relevant meetings and conference agendas such as the
African Union.
“There is no known level of lead exposure that is considered to be safe,” said
Muchai.
“Childhood poisoning can have lifelong health impacts such as learning
disabilities, anaemia and disorders in co-ordination, visual, spatial and language
skills,” she said.
Jeiel Guarino of IPEN, a global net-
work comprised of more than 700 public
interest, non-governmental organizations
in 116 countries, said some paint manu-
facturers argue that transitioning to lead-
free zones, would require more than a
year, a period that they think will see them
“lose ground and therefore prefer waiting
for governments to set the regulations.”
He told participants some of the paint
manufacturers say “making the change to
lead-free paints will increase the cost of
the paint products.”
Guarino said others manufacturers
argue the small quantity of supplies
that they need will cost more and that
creating and printing new labels will be
too costly.
However, Guarino said even if the
paint manufacturers are reluctant to
change to lead-free products “the switch
to unleaded paints is coming and com-
panies that change the quickest and ad-
vertise that they have done so will do the
best in the marketplace.”
“Those that wait for government regu-
lations may be left behind,” said Guarino.
He said the perception by paint manufacturers that changing to a lead-free
regime will be too costly for them ignores the fact that “the cost to our children and our countries for not acting is
even greater.”
“We have talked to many companies who have reduced their lead content below 90ppm, and no one has told
us that it increased the price significantly,” said Guarino.
The EACC participants heard that the
switch to lead-free paint products could
increase material costs by 2 percent “but
the overall production cost is minimal.”
The IPEN lead paint elimination cam-
paigner said, creating and printing new
labels for the new lead-free products need
not be expensive because manufacturers
have options such as “printing the labels
periodically as part of the overall market-
ing effort in doing business.”
Guarino said the regulatory frame-
works “usually includes a phase-out
period during which new materials and
marketing strategies be developed.”
Guarino said IPEN supports the
90ppm total lead because it is an
“achievable and protective goal for lead
paint worldwide and also is a regulatory
standard in the U.S, Canada, Philipines
and Nepal.”
“Total lead provides a more predict-
able test for manufacturers who have test
results from ingredients,” he said. CW
