(Banjul, The Gambia) More than 80 percent of the paint brands included in a study analyzing lead in solvent-based paints for home use in The Gambia sold one or more paint that contained dangerously high total lead content greater than 10,000 parts per million (ppm). The maximum allowed limit in e.g. Cameroon and Kenya is 90 ppm, which is also the recommended limit by UN Environment. Two yellow paints from the brands National and Oasis, both of which were imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), contained the highest amount of lead at 100,000 ppm. Furthermore, two paints from the brand Oasis, manufactured by Al Gurg Paints LLC in UAE and advertised as “100% lead free,” contained 100,000 ppm and 65,000 ppm lead. These and other alarming findings are part of a report released today by the Young Volunteers for the Environment (YVE)-The Gambia and IPEN.
15 August 2018, Quezon City. An ordinance that will protect consumers, especially women and girls, against skin lightening products contaminated with mercury has successfully hurdled the hearing by the Quezon City Council’s Committee on Health and Sanitation.
At the committee hearing held yesterday, August 14, the committee unanimously approved Proposed Ordinance 20CC-439 entitled “An Ordinance Banning the Manufacture, Distribution, and Sale of Mercury-Containing Skin Whitening Cosmetics in Quezon City.
The said ordinance was co-introduced by Councilors Elizabeth Delartmente, Diorella Maria Sotto-Antonio, Irene Belmonte, Kate Abigael Galang- Coseteng, Eufemio Lagumbay, Eric Medina and Marivic Co-Pilar.
Several NGOs wrote a letter directed to the Executive Board of the Interamerican Development Bank and the InterAmerican Investment Corporation (BID Invest) to deter the approval of a $200 million dollar loan for a Termo AP Project this Tuesday.
The loan would support the building of a waste incinerator for the next 20 years in Mexico City, incinerating millions of tons of solid waste to produce energy. This project has been opposed by a wide range of NGOs in Mexico City, and the new elected city government has expressed strong opposition to this project. In this time of transition for the new elected government, which will be formally instated on December 5th, 2018, the letter is asking officials to reconsider the support of this project.
(Göteborg, Sweden) Dr. Tadesse Amera, the distinguished environmental scientist and Director of Pesticide Action Nexus (PAN)-Ethiopia, has been elected as IPEN Co-Chair, the highest level in the global network. Dr. Amera will share chairing responsibilities with Co-Chair Pamela Miller of Alaska Community Action on Toxics. The network of over 500 public interest environmental health NGOs in more than 125 countries is united to eradicate the world’s most harmful substances for a toxics-free future for all.
Best known for a pioneering agro-ecology initiative that models organic alternatives to eliminate highly hazardous pesticide use in cotton cultivation, Dr. Amera has advanced numerous environmental health initiatives at local, national and regional levels and leads health and environmental engagements in high-level international policy making fora.
(Gotebörg, Sweden) High levels of toxic substances have been found in over 60% of children’s toys tested in a recent analysis of toxic heavy metals and chemicals in toys on the market in Nepal. The study, released on the anniversary of the passage of Nepal’s 2017 regulatory standard on toxic substances in children’s products, a law that industry lobbyists are currently working to weaken, underscores the need for greater enforcement of the strong regulation. The study was conducted by CEPHED, a Nepalese public interest NGO, and IPEN, a global network of public interest health and environment NGOs.
IPEN Participating organization, Toxics Link has released a new report titled, Endocrine Disruptor: Review of Indian Research.
The report is intended to collect information on some of the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) that are used in the making of consumer products, as well as their impacts on human and environmental health, based on the research studies carried out in Indian context and general information from other international sources. The report is intended to spread awareness among consumers and encourage researchers to seek new information and make it available in the public domain. For policymakers, this report will help to take appropriate actions to create or modify regulations on the sound management of these EDCs in order to protect public and environmental health.
IPEN PO and Regional Hub, l'Association de l'éducation environnementale pour les futures générations (AEEFG), co-organized a meeting in Tunisia on the "Substitution of lead in industrial paint in Tunisia" under the SwitchMed Programme on June 19thand 20th. Around 50 stakeholders representing industry, Ministries, academia and civil society met to exchange experiences on lead paint in Tunisia, and to discuss next steps towards eliminating lead paint in Tunisia.
A technical guideline on replacing lead in anticorrosive paint developed by AEEFG, in collaboration with IPEN experts, was presented and welcomed by industry representatives. The outcomes of the meeting included support from key stakeholders for banning lead paint in Tunisia. AEEFG´s Executive Director Semia Gharbi played a key role in planning the meeting and facilitating stakeholder dialogue.