Coalition calls for removal of lead painted garden tools from store shelves

As the UN-backed International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week winds up tomorrow, a toxics watchdog group based in the Philippines called on local dealers to halt the sale of  home garden tools imported from Brazil due to their dangerous lead content.

Armed with laboratory test results, the EcoWaste Coalition prodded the importer, distributor and retailer of the “made in Brazil” garden tools to remove them from store shelves and have them shipped back to their source.

“The lead-containing paint in home garden tools we sent to the laboratory for analysis will surely flake over time with frequent use.  This may cause the lead in paint to get discharged into the soil, and children may be exposed to lead if the contaminated soil gets into their hands and mouths,” said Thony Dizon, Chemical Safety Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.

“Home gardening, which has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a healthy activity for people of all ages, including kids.  Thus the need to ensure essential tools pose no lead-based paint hazards,” he pointed out, noting that consumer product safety authorities in the US had on several instances recalled children’s garden tools for violation of the federal lead paint standard.

The group had earlier procured the garden tools from a leading home improvement store chain and from an online seller.  After screening the samples for lead using a handheld X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) device, the group had them tested by SGS Philippines, Inc. for confirmatory analysis.

Based on the laboratory analyses performed by SGS, the lead content of the orange paint on the metal component of five garden tools exceeded the regulatory limit of 90 parts per million (ppm).  The analyses were performed by inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES).

A trowel was found to contain 38,600 ppm of lead; a weeder had 36,300 ppm; a rake had 34,700 ppm; a cultivator had 33,800 ppm; and a hand fork had 32,300 ppm.

The excessive lead on the orange paint used for the tools, the EcoWaste Coalition explained, may be due to the lax lead paint regulation in Brazil.  As summarized in the “Global Lead Paint Elimination Report” published by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), Brazil’s “Law 11.762/2008  prohibits paint with lead content greater than 600 ppm, with exceptions for use in industry and agriculture equipment, traffic paint and other industrial applications.”

The Brazilian lead paint regulation is less protective compared to the DENR Administrative Order 2013-24, or the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compound, which sets a total lead content limit of 90 ppm and bans the use of lead in paint manufacturing for all categories of paints, including those used for industrial applications.

“Our detection of dangerous concentrations of lead in painted garden tools, as well as in other products like painted metal water bottles, points to the importance of banning lead compounds in paints and coatings for all applications,” the EcoWaste Coalition emphasized.