Lead Content of Dominican Paint?

Keith R

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Jan 1, 2002
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I seem to recall reading some (can't locate it in my records or on the net) that a couple of years back the DR finally phased out the use of lead in paints sold in the country. Can anyone confirm this? If just reduced, rather than phased out, any idea of the current content levels? And just how much was in old paints? [which would mean one needs to be careful when dealing with removal of old paint.]

All help would be appreciated.

Yes, I admit, this is part of the development of a Green Team blog piece on painting in our ongoing "Personal Choices" series.
 

Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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Here's some recently published facts about leads toxicity in children from the American Academy of Pediatrics

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/4/1036


"the Academy's new policy statement confirms that no one any longer believes that 10 ug/dL protects lead-exposed children from harm, or that there is any "safe" level of lead exposure for children. The federal government itself came to this conclusion in 2002: "there is no apparent threshold below which adverse effects of lead do not occur," said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "

"The main effect of lead is to impair cognition, which is usually measured (after age 5) by an IQ test. Any amount of lead reduces a child's IQ to some degree."

"For children with more than 10 ug/dL of lead in their blood, each additional 10 ug/dL of lead reduces IQ another 2 to 3 points. However, two recent studies have shown that the first 10 ug/dL increase is the most damaging, reducing a child's IQ by "more than 7 points"

"The new policy statement acknowledges that toxic lead is associated with aggressive behavior and delinquency in children"

"Other aspects of brain or nerve function [besides IQ], especially behavior, also may be affected. Teachers reported that students with elevated tooth lead concentrations were more inattentive, hyperactive, disorganized, and less able to follow directions. Additional follow-up of some of those children showed higher rates of failure to graduate from high school, reading disabilities, and greater absenteeism in the final year of high school. Elevated bone lead concentrations are associated with increased attentional dysfunction, aggression, and delinquency. In children followed from infancy with blood lead measurements, self-reported delinquent behavior at 15 to 17 years of age increased with both prenatal and postnatal lead exposure, and bone lead, thought to represent cumulative dose, is higher in adjudicated delinquents. These data imply that the effects of lead exposure are long lasting and perhaps permanent."

"This is another important point in the Academy's most recent policy statement: it reviews evidence showing that harm from lead is irreversible. Physicians used to think (or at least hope) that ending toxic exposure would allow a child to recover lost brain function. That possibility now seems very unlikely."
 

Keith R

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Thanks, Mirador, but I know all about lead's toxicity -- it was the reason behind the question in the first place. But my original question remain unanswered: what is the lead content of paint in the DR currently?
 

Mirador

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Keith R said:
Thanks, Mirador, but I know all about lead's toxicity -- it was the reason behind the question in the first place. But my original question remain unanswered: what is the lead content of paint in the DR currently?

Keith, you personally may know about lead's toxicity, but it is my experence that most people are not as informed as you. By the way, there's nothing in the net that can answer your question. You will have to check with Secretaria de Estado de Industria y Comercio, Direcci?n General de Normas y Sistemas de Calidad (DIGENOR)...
 

Keith R

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Well, I can do that in order to go through the motions, but my past experience with DiGENOR is that they do not answer emails and faxes (a not uncommon phenomenon among Dominican government institutions, I am sorry to say :( ) I was hoping someone here on DR1 might have discussed this issue with someone in-the-know in the private sector... Guess it was too much to hope for. :ermm:
 

Keith R

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P.S. I'm also wondering if the DR has phased out titanium dioxide in paints, an ingredient often used to make brillant colors (which we all know are the kinds favored by many Dominicans). TO2 was only phased out in Europe a short while ago, so it would not surprise me if if could still be found in the DR...
 
Jan 5, 2006
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Keith, lead is no longer used in the manufacturing of paint in DR. I recall seeing a tv report on this, not too long ago on either Nuria or La Vida Misma. The report revolved around a small community in Haina, where a paint manufacturing plant operated and was subsequently abandoned. There are a lot of children living in the vicinity of the old manufacturing plant who are suffering with lead poisoning due to direct contamination of the soil and also lead dust being dispersed into the air. They also spoke to one of the major paint manufacturers in DR, who stated that the use of lead was outlawed several years ago, and that they no longer used it in their production process.

Perhaps you can get your hands on a copy of that report on the net. I've seen some other reports from both shows on the net, and even a link here on DR1, but I just can't recall the site. Good luck on your search.
 

Keith R

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Thanks, HM. But didn't the Haina lead poisoning case involve a poorly managed "lead acid battery recycling plant" (i.e., an artesanal lead mining from car batteries facility) instead of a paint factory utilizing lead inputs? That's what I recall from a case occuring while I lived in SD in the late 1990s. Maybe there were both?
 
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It was definitely paint. Anyway, I found the Nuria segments. I'll look through them later to see if I can find the one that I'm referring to.
 

Keith R

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okay, thanks. I wonder if lead is really formally outlawed in the DR yet, though, and whether local manufacturers have completely phased it out. My suspicion is aroused by the fact that on the Pinturas Tropical website, only one or two premium paints mention that they are lead-free. By mentioning, they obviously feel it is a selling point. By not mentioning it for all their blends, it makes me wonder if some of them cannot yet be called "lead-free." :paranoid:
 

Mirador

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I tested an old, half empty, galon of acrylic paint, left over from a previous whitewashing. It contained 19.5% lead!!!. Don't take my word for it, try it yourself, but first order your lead testing kit. Mine was from http://www.leadinspector.com/

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