15 Brands Pass Lead Safe Paint® Certification

Fifteen architectural and industrial paint brands comprising a total of 1,395 paint products manufactured by three paint companies in the Philippines have passed the third-party Lead Safe Paint® Certification program.

The US-based SCS Global Services (the certification body), the Sweden-based International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN, the certification standard and logo owner) and its local affiliate, the EcoWaste Coalition, made the announcement as the 8^th International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is observed to promote the accelerated phase-out of lead paint across the globe.

Among the paint brands duly certified as Lead Safe Paint® are Boysen, Nation, Titan and Virtuoso Silk brands by Pacific Paints (Boysen), Philippines, Inc. (total of 434 products); Davies brand by Davies Paints Philippines, Inc. (371 products); and the PureCoat Premium, WeatherGard, Sycwin, PureCoat Advance, Minnesota, Delaware, Alabama, Kansas, Guilder and Illinois brands by Sycwin Coating & Wires, Inc. (590 products).

Lead Safe Paint® is an independent, third-party program that lets customers know that a product contains total lead content less than 90 parts per million (ppm) on a dry weight basis—the limit set under the DENR A.O. 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds, as well as the limit recommended by the UN Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint.

“Our independent assessment shows that the lead content of the paint products under each brand conforms to the 90 ppm total lead content limit. This allows the compliant companies to put the Lead Safe Paint® logo on paint cans enabling consumers to make sound purchasing decisions that will safeguard their families from lead-based paint hazards,” said Rob Emelander, Program Manager, SCS Global Services.

“The Lead Safe Paint® certification provides assurance that the manufacturer of a certified paint brand has taken the necessary steps to abide by the regulation banning the use of lead additives as pigment, drying catalyst, or as an anticorrosive agent in paint,” said Jeiel Guarino, IPEN Global Lead Paint Elimination Campaigner, adding that “this program has become a very useful tool for promoting consumer access to independently verified lead-safe paint products.”

“We hope to see more paint products in the market that bear the Lead Safe Paint® logo as this will help paint consumers, including local government units, housing developers, school administrators and others, in selecting products that will not leave a toxic lead paint legacy behind,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner of the EcoWaste Coalition, who noted that “surfaces covered with lead paint can threaten children’s health for a long period of time.”

In line with the consumer rights to information and to product safety, the EcoWaste Coalition and IPEN jointly prodded paint manufacturers to participate in the  Lead Safe Paint® certification program to enhance consumer’s ability to select paints they can be confident to contain no lead additives.