No Safe Level Of Lead Exposure

Lead can be dangerous for men, women and children — especially young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women. And there is no safe level of lead exposure. Our exposures to lead should be ZERO.

Lead is toxic to the reproductive system in both men and women. In men it can reduce the sperm count and produce abnormal sperm. Young boys who are heavily exposed to lead during childhood will have impaired production of sperm when they reach puberty.

In 2015 the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, estimated that exposure to lead globally caused about 500,000 deaths that year and 12% of developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has conducted numerous tests on food and products for the presence of lead. Over the years we found lead to be present in a wide range of products such as paints, cosmetics, hair dyes, chopsticks, canned foods, colour pencils, poster colour, ceramics and baby milk powder.

Presently there are regulations on lead only in food and cosmetics. For paints, the law says that the maximum acceptable migration of lead in paint of not more than 90 parts per million (ppm) in toys for children below 14 years old. This is inadequate because it does not address paints which can contribute to our lead exposure, including those in our children.
As of 31 August 2017, 67 countries have legally binding controls to limit the production, import and sale of lead paints. Malaysia does not have laws regulating lead in paints.

Therefore Malaysia urgently needs to have a law limiting the amount of lead in paints for household and decorative use.

UN Environment Programme
World Health Organization (WHO)
IPEN: for a toxics-free future

#BanLeadPaint #ILPPW2020