ELIMINATION OF LEAD PAINT IS POSSIBLE WITH LEAD PAINT LAWS (Invited Presentation)

Lead Paint was banned in the developing world forty years ago but is still legally sold in most of the developing world. The US limit for lead paint is 90 ppm; in the developing world paint can be found at levels of 10,000, 20,000 ppm and more. Once lead paint is on walls it is difficult and expensive to remove. The cheapest and most effective way to stop lead poisoning is by establishing laws that ban lead paint.

The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (“Alliance” or “Lead Paint Alliance”), is jointly led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and chaired by US EPA. International Organizations took additional steps to address lead paint in 2017 when Environment Ministers passed a resolution on lead paint at the Third UN Environment Assembly and Health Ministers agreed to a call to action on lead paint in the Chemicals Roadmap at the 70^th World Health Assembly.

The Lead Paint Alliance is a UN partnership that includes governments, industry, and environment and health groups. The Alliance is working with countries to prevent lead paint at the source by establishing lead paint laws to prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of lead paint. The Alliance has demonstrated that there are technically feasible alternatives to lead paint available in developing countries at costs comparable to lead paint.

Paint testing by Alliance partners has found that countries with lead paint laws have paint with low levels of lead. The UN developed the Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint (Model Law), which provides a template for lead paint laws that can be customized to address country-specific legal frameworks. The Model Law, which is available in all six UN languages, recommends a lead concentration limit of 90 ppm. Only 75 countries (less than 40% of countries) have lead paint laws.

Preventing the manufacture and sale of lead paint will prevent exposure of millions of children to lead. The momentum toward lead paint laws is growing and countries are increasingly using the Model Law as a basis for new or revised laws. However, despite significant progress, too many countries in the developing world still do not have lead paint laws and too many children are exposed to lead paint.