Africa
company said in one of its media releases
adding that the company has been forced
to shift focus to waterborne wood finish-
ing products because “the wood finish
industry is slowly becoming more envi-
ronmentally aware.”
Chemspec, whose decorative brands
include Deco, Chemspel, Woodsure and
Panache, has operations in Tanzania,
Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia
and Mauritius markets where it intends
to set the pace in supplying paint with
low lead levels. The international market
accounted for the coating company’s 39
percent total sales in 2013.
There have been concerns, however, in the West Africa coatings market
over the supply of highly toxic paint
brands by local and foreign companies
with at least one international lobby
calling for the prosecution of a leading
U.S.-based supplier.
Nigeria, where an estimated 700 children under the age five died from lead
poisoning in 2010, is yet to enact legislation to curb high levels of the chemical.
It is estimated that another 3,000 children are in need of long-term treatment
from the lead poisoning in the country’s
Zamfra state.
A group of civil society organizations
recently called for “immediate enactment
of mandatory national regulations for
limiting lead concentrations in paints.”
“There should be a complete ban and
eradication of continued sale of leaded
paints and have in place regulatory mech-
anism towards adulterated, unregistered,
unlabeled, repackaged and uncertified
paint products,” they said in a petition to
the Federal Government.
“We believe that national re-brand-
ing should be synonymous with prod-
uct re-branding. Government should
set example by prohibiting procure-
ment (purchasing) of paint products
with lead.”
Paint Manufacturers Association
has also been pushing its members to
ensure their operations are responsive
to environmental needs and that they
“leave behind a better environment for
coming generations.”
PMA chief executive officer Sulaimon
Tella said in a previous interview with
local media the lobby is out to ensure
“the industry takes seriously the need to
contribute towards a greener environ-
ment through the raw materials we use.”
An environmental group Sustainable
Research and Action for Environmental
Development (SRADev) said public
awareness by both government agen-
cies and civil society is critical in the
fight to eliminate lead paint from the
Nigerian market.
“There is a need for information cam-
paigns to inform the public about the
hazards of lead exposure, especially in
children; the presence of lead in deco-
rative paints for sale and use in the na-
tional market; lead paint as a significant
source of childhood lead exposure; and
availability of technically superior and
safer alternatives,” said Leslie Adogame,
SRADev’s executive director.
“Paint manufacturers in Nigeria are
encouraged to eliminate lead compounds
from their paint formulations, especially
of those paints likely to contribute to lead
exposure in children and others.”
He urged the manufacturers to volun-
tarily take part in programmes that “pro-
vide third party paint certification that
no lead has been added to their paints,
and to label products in ways that help
consumers to identify paints that do not
contain lead.”
In neighboring Cameroon, the coun-
try’s largest paint maker and supplier
Seignerurie, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based
PPG, was early last year in the news for
selling highly toxic house paint to con-
sumers despite alerts of the high levels of
lead it contained and petitions to with-
draw the product from the market.
The accusation was made in March by
Occupational Knowledge International
(OK International) which describes itself
as a global organization working to build
capacity in developing countries to iden-
tify, monitor, and mitigate environmental
and occupational exposures to hazardous
materials in order to protect public health
and the environment.
“There is an immediate need for
regulations to restrict the lead content
of paint in Cameroon to protect public
health,” said Perry Gottesfeld, executive
OK International.
Gottesfeld, who is also a co-author
of the research into the Cameroon is-
sue said,“The levels of lead are extraor-
dinarily high and these products have
been banned in the U.S. for more than
30 years.”
The findings of the research were
published in the May 2013 issue of
the “Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Hygiene” and “revealed
lead concentrations are as high as 50
percent by weight in household paint
being sold by Cameroon’s largest paint
company, Seignerurie. This concentration
is more than 5,000 times the allowable
limit in the U.S.”
“This is the ultimate case of a com-
pany operating with double standards as
they sell hazardous products in develop-
ing countries that have been banned in
the US since the 1970s,” said Gottesfeld.
However, in an interview with a
UK publication, PPG said it has ad-
opted globally accepted standards
for all its products including the con-
tentious paints in circulation in the
Cameroonian market.
“PPG globally adopted a position that
limits the lead content for all architectur-
al and decorative coatings marketed to
consumers to the United States Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stan-
dard of 90ppm in 2008,” said Jeermy
Neuhart, PGG’s spokesperson.
“In 2011, PPG undertook an inter-
nal review regarding lead in consumer
paint sold in Cameroon, which does
not have a legal limit for lead in paints
and coatings. PPG has indicated its
support of a Cameroon governmental
standard for lead in consumer paints
and will comply with such a regulation
if enacted.”
A sample study of African countries
found high levels of average lead con-
centrations with Kenya having 14,900
ppm, Cameroon, 23,100 ppm; Egypt,
26,200; Nigeria (two studies), 37,000
and 15,750 ppm; Senegal 5,870 ppm;
South Africa, 19,860; and Tanzania
14,500 ppm.
According to the WHO, “Exposure to
lead paint can be entirely stopped through
a range of measures to restrict the production and use of lead paint.” CW
