Coatings World - January 2014

Africa

by Shem Oirere Africa Correspondent

The drive by paint manufacturers, government and non-govern- mental agencies to eliminate the making of paints with lead and chrome in Africa gained momentum in 2013 despite few setbacks such as lack of relevant legislation to enforce the initiative and reluctance by some suppliers to remove the offending products from their shelves for fear of losses.

Although it is discretionary in almost all African countries for paint makers to remove lead from paint, some manufacturers have taken the lead in ensuring the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) target of a world free of lead paint and chrome by 2020 is achieved.

“We are pleased to be years ahead of the global deadline of producing lead-free paints,” said Kamlesh Shah, managing director of Kenya-based Basco Paints Ltd, the leading paint maker and distributor in Eastern Africa.

Basco Paints, whose Basco and Duracoat brands are distributed in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan, said it put an end to production of decorative paints with lead and chrome in 2013.

“All Duracoat decorative paints manufactured from August 2013 are lead/chrome-free and all raw materials containing these contents have been replaced,” said Shah.

Basco Paint’s Duracoat and Basco
brands come in 7,000 shades with
Shah saying “it is the largest offering
in the region.”
“The move to unleaded paint is pos-
sible and we are proof of that. I en-
courage other players in the industry
to follow suit because it is possible for
paint manufacturers to find alternative
raw materials to do the same job.”
South African Paint Manufacturing
Association (Sapma) is seeking tougher
sentences on paint makers unwilling to
reduce the level of lead in their paint
brands and called for enforceable legisla-
tion to ensure the lead levels in all paint
brands is reduced from 600 ppm (parts
per million) to 90 ppm in line with the
Global Alliance for the Elimination of
Lead in Paint (GAELIP).

“This can only happen if the government stopped merely threatening to take action against the culprits but actually makes an example of them and prosecute them,” said Deryck Spence, Sapma’s executive director.

Speaking in November during a
workshop organized by the Department
of Labour, Spence was quoted by local
media saying: “Sapma has done every-
thing in its power to warn lead-using
producers – whether Sapma members
or not – but we now require the strong
arm of the government to name and
shame manufacturers who still ignore
anti-lead legislation.”
“Sapma members would welcome
such prosecutions because it would be
in accordance with our ethical views and
strategies since the major brands, having
already eliminated lead in the decorative
market, are diligently working towards
the total elimination of lead in the man-
ufacture of paint, including industrial
products like road-marking paints.”
He said Sapma members have com-
mitted “to produce only lead-free paint
and, equally importantly, those retail
members who join Sapma will not
stock paint from a supplier unable to
provide a declaration that his or her
product is lead-free.”
“There are about 200 small- to me-
dium-sized manufacturers of paint and
coatings producing uncontrolled prod-
ucts. Our drive to recruit as many retail-
ers as possible is also still a challenge.
Without the retail industry’s cooperation,
paints containing lead can still find its
way to store shelves – and all too often at
ridiculously low prices.”
He advocated for more water-based
paints with more white oil-based enam-
els to reduce the lead levels in the brands
supplied to the market.

“It should be remembered that 80 percent of decorative paint is water-based and contains no lead, which is traditionally used to obtain the rich colors in oil-based enamels. As the majority of enamel sold is white, this reduces the lead factor even further since ‘colored’ enamels represent only about four percent of decorative sales” he explained.

Chemspec, one of Africa’s largest coatings companies with a five percent market share of South Africa’s coatings market, is one of the manufacturers that have pledged to eliminate lead/chrome from all their paint brands distributed across the continent and beyond.