KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 28
Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other governmental and non-governmental organisations have been marking every third week of October as International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) since 2013, lead poisoning, particularly among children, remains a major health problem and is in fact increasing.
According to Ram Charitra Sah, environment scientist and Executive Director of Centre for Public Health and Environmental Development (CEPHED), lead exposure can have serious consequences on the health of children.
High levels of exposure to lead can severely damage the brain and central nervous system leading to coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive severe lead poisoning may be left with permanent intellectual disability and behavioural disorders.
Sah said four pilot researches on Blood Lead Level (BLL) among Nepalese children from Dharan-Biratnagar industrial corridor, Birgunj Industrial area and in the capital city Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur conducted by different groups of health professionals in the past revealed that 65 per cent of children had elevated levels of lead in their blood, that is, over 5 micrigram/deciliter.
He said the government needed to set up laboratories in all seven provinces and conduct mandatory screening of children to detect exposure to lead. Exposure to lead is caused by use of colourful toys, painting materials used to paint houses, furniture, schools and playground, cosmetics, chemicals in products, noodles and even ayurvedic medicines.
The government had enacted a mandatory standard of lead in paints - maximum allowable limit of 90 ppm in December 2014, defining the level of lead in all kinds of painting materials, but the standards' compliance has not been monitored by the regulatory agencies on a regular basis, according to Sah. He said his office - CEPHED - had done research on 62 enamel paints from all seven provinces with the support of Government of Nepal, Ministry of Health and Population and the WHO country office for Nepal in 2021. The result was not so encouraging even after the standard came into force in June 2015 . Only 32 out of 62 paint samples ( 52 per cent) complied with the maximum lead limit of 90 ppm whereas 30 of 62 (48 per cent) paints had exceeded the prescribed limit of lead. "There are some multinational paint industries including Nepali manufacturers that have complied with the government's standard limit of 90 ppm, that means if the compliance is effectively monitored, 100 per cent compliance was a doable thing.
According to Sah, there was not a single laboratory in public health facilities/centres that tested lead poisoning. "Even doctors do not perceive and direct patients to go for lead screening even when there is a reason to suspect symptoms of lead poisoning. This means doctors are also not adequately aware of the danger of lead poisoning, he added.
According to Sah, There is urgent need to adopt National Blood Lead Level Screening policy, develop suitable blood lead testing facilities in each province, regular marker and industry monitoring, massive public awareness and enactment of regulatory framework to regulate all the products (paints, toys, cosmetics , ayurvedic medicines, food items and other such items) and industrial processes based on lead.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population said that paint and cosmetics sellers tend to use lead to make their products attractive and there was need to discourage them by imposing fine and enforcing strict compliance rules during the registration of companies/shops that sell paints and cosmetics. He said his ministry was preparing new rules that would exclude health materials with lead in the tender process itself. "We are preparing a manual that will also train health professionals to dispose of materials containing lead safely so that they cannot pose environmental challenges,"
Budhathoki added. He said the Ministry of Forest and Environment and Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies should also do their part to strictly enforce measures of clean environment and regularly monitor lead content in products in the market and industries producing leadbased products.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 29, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.