Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum54 Subsidiaries Of US, EU, Japanese Companies Busy Making High-Lead Paint For Developing Countries
EDIT
Theres no debate about the pernicious effects of lead: Ingesting it, and inhaling its fumes and dust, can cause irreversible brain and nerve damage. No level of exposure is considered safe, which is why lead paint has been banned for most uses in the U.S. and Europe for decades. Shockingly, however, U.S. and European Union companies continue to manufacture lead paint in developing countries, where few governments regulate the stuff.
If the situation doesnt change, the developing world will soon have its own toxic legacy to rival that of the West -- of lead-coated houses that require expensive remediation, of whole generations set back by lead poisoning. Tests in about 25 low- and middle-income countries in recent years have found that the majority of the decorative oil-based paints for sale in local markets contained dangerous amounts of lead. In one 2008-2009 study, the average lead concentration of such paint purchased in 11 countries was 23,707 parts per million. The legal limit for residential use in the U.S. is 90 ppm.
When paint contains lead above 90 ppm, its an indication the metal was added intentionally -- as a pigment, drying agent or corrosion retardant. Safe alternatives exist for each of these functions. Some of the optional pigments are more expensive than lead, but coloring is such a small fraction of the total cost of paint that cans with and without lead sell for the same price. Thus, manufacturers have no good justification for selling the former.
Yet the study identified 54 companies that made the paints with excessive lead concentrations, six of which were subsidiaries of U.S. companies and eight of which were subsidiaries of European or Japanese companies. Whats more, U.S. entities exported at least 11,000 tons of the pigments necessary to make lead paint in 2012, a trade worth $27 million.
EDIT
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-02/lead-paint-s-tragic-comeback.html
Scuba
(53,475 posts)It was his favorite food as a child.
phantom power
(25,966 posts)it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh
ConcernedCanuk
(13,509 posts).
.
.
To outfits we know are reselling this toxic waste to be burnt as fuel in other countries.
It is illegal to burn this stuff here because of the health and environmental harm.
BUT - corporations gotta make their money, right?
So we export death;
I ain't proud to be a Canadian no more.
(sigh)
CC
mopinko
(69,806 posts)so says the article, but strangely bloomberg does not name a single company. things that make you go hmmm.
not
CRH
(1,553 posts)the name of the study and the parent companies or subsidiaries, and couldn't find a trail to follow. An article with no provable sources.
cprise
(8,445 posts)Those were the brands they included in their executive summary.
The countries are "Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Belarus, Mexico, Brazil and India".
http://toxicslink.org/docs/Double_Standard_Lead_Paint_29_June_2011.pdf
...from http://www.toxicslink.org/?q=content/publication-5
EDIT: Here is a better article summarizing the above:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829190.200-the-wests-toxic-hypocrisy-over-lead-paint.html?full=true#.UhPrRvPD8uU
PPG is not alone. According to trade figures from 2011, US firms export over 7000 tonnes of lead pigments a year and European Union companies 21,000 tonnes, 4000 tonnes of which come from the UK. German giant BASF only agreed to phase out lead pigments when the EU announced restrictions which come into force at the end of next year.
mopinko
(69,806 posts)well, i wouldn't use it again, anyway, but ick.
add to the boycott aps.