Bright but deadly

A recent international study ‘Economic Costs of Childhood Lead Exposure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries’ by Teresa M Attina and Leonardo Trasande has put a monetary cost to lead exposure in India, and it’s a whooping $ 236 billion annually.

This one-of-its-kind study by the researchers of the Section of Environmental Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine indicates that lead exposure is a major contributor to children’s intellectual disability in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs), including India.

Researchers have created an interactive map that estimates economic impacts of lead exposure in LMICs and peg it at a total of $ 977 billion. This is much higher than the economic impact of lead exposure in developed countries — Europe and the US at $55 billion and $50.9 billion respectively. This landmark study was recently released  at the United Nations Environment Assembly meeting being held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Lead, a heavy metal, is toxic in all forms. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), children around the world today are at risk of exposure to lead from multiple sources (see figure: Sources of children’s exposure to lead). Lead poisoning can affect virtually every organ system in the body — central and peripheral nervous system, the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, renal, endocrine, immune and haematological systems.

Exposure to lead has a permanent negative impact on children’s developing brains, including their intelligence quotient (IQ). Lead exposure early in life can reprogram genes, which can lead to altered gene expression and an associated increased risk of disease later in life, warns WHO. Gastrointestinal absorption of lead is enhanced in childhood — up to 50% of ingested lead is absorbed by children, as compared with the 10% in adults.

The study of NYU School of Medicine focuses on the neurodevelopmental impacts of lead, assessed as decrements (or reductions) in intelligence quotient (IQ) points, and how this translates into decreases in lifetime earning potential, assessed as lost lifetime economic productivity (LEP). By estimating the decrease in earnings potential (lost LEP) from children affected by lead, the researchers have estimated the economic cost of lead exposure in LMICs.

Lead in paints
According to WHO, after lead in petrol, lead in paints is one of the largest sources of exposure to lead. Leaded paint can remain a source of exposure to lead and lead poisoning for many years after the paint has been applied to surfaces. As lead-based residential paint deteriorates with age or as homes undergo renovation, lead-containing dust is generated. “One of the most important things we can do to decrease children’s exposure to lead in LMICs is to ensure lead is no longer used in household paint and other paints to which children may be exposed (such as paints on playground equipment),” recommends the recent study.

Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based NGO and a partner in IPEN’s (a global network campaigning for toxics-free future for all) Global Lead Paint Elimination Campaign, has conducted 5 studies on lead content in paints sold in the Indian markets between 2007 and 2015. In its 2007 study, it found that enamel (oil-based) paints had a lead concentration as high as 1,000 ppm (parts per million). Yellow colour paints had maximum lead levels and white had the least.

Four years later, Toxics Link released another study, ‘Double Standard: Investigating lead content in leading enamel paint brands in South Asia’, and reported that most countries in this region had either no standard for lead in paints or had a voluntary standard. Paint manufacturers were using this legal loophole to push high lead content paints into countries with weak regulatory mechanism.

Shocking numbers
Between November 2012 and February 2013, Toxics Link purchased 250 cans of oil-based house paints from various states of India and tested them. The highest lead concentration observed was 1,60,000 ppm. As many as 44% of the samples had lead levels over 10,000 ppm, whereas 83% were over 600 ppm and 90% over 90 ppm respectively.

Last year, Toxics Link conducted another follow-up study. The report, ‘National Report: Lead in Enamel Household Paints in India’ in 2015, tested 101 cans of new enamel decorative paints purchased from various Indian states and found that there was very little change in lead levels in paints analysed in 2013 and 2015. The report strongly recommended the Indian government to “establish a national mandatory regulatory framework to control the manufacture, import, export, sale, and use of lead paints and products coated with lead paint immediately.”

So far, India does not have any mandatory standard for regulating lead levels in paints. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had a voluntary standard of 1,000 ppm, which was reduced to 90 ppm in 2013. On April 8 this year, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change notified new draft rules called ‘Regulation on Lead contents in Household and Decorative Paints Rules, 2016’ for public comments. These rules, to be implemented by the BIS, propose to ban manufacture, trade, import and export of household and decorative paints with metallic lead exceeding 90 ppm.

“India is finally set to have a mandatory standard of lead in paints. Based on public comments, the environment ministry will soon notify the final rules. Though no level of lead exposure is good, the limit of 90 ppm is the global best,” says Dr Prashant Rajanakar, programme coordinator with Toxics Link. According to him, most big players in the Indian paint industry have already shifted to ‘lead safe’ paints. Some of them have as low as 8-10 ppm of lead levels.