Ghana launches action week for Lead prevention

Ghana has joined the international community to launch the week of Action on Lead Poisoning Prevention declared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Week aims at raising awareness among governments, manufacturers and consumers about the dangers of lead in household paints.

Mr Emmanuel Odjam-Akumatey, Executive Director of Ecological Restorations, an environmental NGO in Ghana launched the week of action in Accra with the release of a UNEP survey report on lead in paints.

The survey was undertaken by the Global Alliance, an international environmental group and co-led by UNEP and the World Health Organization (WHO) to help eliminate lead in Paints.

The survey found paints with extremely high levels of toxic metal lead  in most domestic markets across the world. It indicated that in spite of the danger posed by high levels of lead in paints only a few countries had established regulatory frameworks to address the problem.

According to the survey report only a few manufacturers included warnings about hazards associated with lead on their labels.

The report indicated that in Ghana there were many household paints in the market with high concentration of lead which posed as a serious danger to children.

It further pointed out that there was currently no law or regulation in Ghana that controlled or limited the lead content of paints used for household decoration.

“It appears that the lead content of many of the decorative paints sold and used in Ghana are sufficiently high to contribute to significant national levels of childhood lead exposure”.

The UNEP report recommended national efforts to promote the establishment of legal and regulatory frameworks to control the manufacture, importation, exportation, sale and use of paints and products coated with lead.

It also called for information campaigns to inform the public about the hazards of lead exposure, especially in children, the presence of lead decorative paints for sale and use on the national market, among other issues.

Additionally, it urged paint manufacturers to eliminate lead compounds from their paint formulations and participate in programmes that provided third party certification that no lead had been added to their paint.

“They are encouraged to label products to help consumers identify paints free from added lead”, the report urged.

Source: GNA