Paint with nontoxic paints

Every body in his/her life time may have once come in touch with paint. There is unalike variety of paints from odorless paints, paints with plastic coating, paints with weather shield , paints with fluoresce and even more…. .On every occasion we will paint our house or premises with the latest brand new paint which boasts about its durability.

Check the following facts.

• Lead is a soft and heavy metal.
• Lead pigments are used extensively in paints for white, yellow, orange, and red colors
• Lead is neurotoxin (a substance that acts with membrane proteins of nerve cells)
• Lead poisoning was documented in ancient Rome, Greece, and China.
  

Centre for Science and Environment is a public interest research and advocacy organization that promotes environmentally sound and equitable development strategies.
CSE has conducted a study on popular brands of paints in India and found that most of the brands contain extremely high quantity of lead which is harmful for children. It has found that 72% of samples contain lead that is more than the admissible limit specified by Bureau of Indian Standards.

Please have a look at the graph showing the lead content in major paint brands.

1. 18 samples contained lead much higher than the 1,000 ppm limit specified by the BIS.
2. Deep Orange paint of the Shalimar’s Superlac brand has highest lead contend ie 185 times the BIS limit and 308 times the US paints limit of 600 ppm.
3. Berger brand Luxol’s golden yellow color had a staggering 162,559 ppm lead .
4. All the samples of ICI-Dulux had lead much below the specified limit.
5. ICI did not use lead in its paint formulations.

Lead will lead to

• Lead poisoning is as the ‘silent epidemic’.

• The human body cannot process and excrete lead.
  
• Sustained and large exposure can cause neuron damage.
  
• Children are especially susceptible and their central nervous systems and brains are affected.
• Even extremely low levels of lead can impair foetal development.
  

It is easy to get exposed to lead. One can pick it up by touching paint on walls and other surfaces, inhaling exhaust fumes from a vehicle, or while walking on leaded paint chips, says the CSE study.

I have prepared this post based on the CSE report. You can read the full report from the following link. Lead Content in Paints .

We need to

• set a standard lead levels for paint in the country
• set environmental level on products.
• print clear cut ingredients and toxic levels listing on products

References:
http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20090817.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead

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