International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week
25-31 October 2020
International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week is an initiative of the Lead Paint Alliance (which is jointly led by the UN Environment Programme and WHO) to raise awareness and promote actions to address the health impacts of lead exposure, especially on children, pregnant women, and workers. The eighth International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW) takes place on 25–31 October 2020.
The focus of this year’s week of action is on the need to accelerate progress towards the global phase out of lead paint through regulatory and legal measures.
Lead is a cumulative toxicant (increasing in quantity in the body over many years) that affects multiple body systems (neurologic, hematologic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and renal systems).
Young children are more susceptible to toxic effects of lead because they have higher exposure than adults and because of their developing brain resulting in reduced intellectual ability.
Adults exposed to lead are also at increased risk of developing high blood pressure and kidney damage. Exposure of pregnant women to high levels of lead can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth and low birth weight and malformations.
Paints mainly used for decorative purposes contain high levels of lead and are a leading source of lead exposure, particularly in children.
Many countries have taken actions to prevent the harmful health impacts of lead exposure. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC), Government of India has also passed a notification as “Regulation on Lead contents in Household and Decorative Paints Rules, 2016 in November 2016. That came in force in November 2017. It prohibits the manufacture, trade, import as well as export of household and decorative paints containing lead or lead compounds above 90 parts per million (ppm).
There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects. Lead exposure is preventable.
#BanLeadPaint #ILPPW2020
Four things you should know about lead (WHO)-See Video
Know more about Lead poisoning-NHP
References:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/international-lead-poisoning-prevention-week/2020
http://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2016/172451.pdf
