The seven NGOs participating in IPEN’s Asian Lead Paint Elimination Project are releasing new national reports on lead levels in paints between now and June 20. The 2015 reports follow-up on analyses conducted in 2013 and are designed to test whether or not lead levels have fallen since that earlier study, especially in paints with high lead levels in 2013.
“Even minimal exposure to lead can impact children. We must completely eliminate it in paint. Whether large or small amount, it has a harmful effect,” Dr. Mengistu Asnake, President of the World Federation for Public Health Association, said at a workshop organized by PAN Ethiopia on June 4th. Attending the workshop were leaders from the Ethiopian government and major media outlets.
The newsletter features updates from IPEN Participating Organizations on some of their work in the region, including from Latinoamericana de Nanotecnología y Sociedad (ReLANS), Red de Acción en Plaguicidas y sus Alternativas para América Latina (RAPAL), Red de Acción sobre Plaguicidas y sus Alternativas en México (RAPAM), Taller Ecologista and Alianza Mundial por una Odontología Libre de Mercurio.
IPENer Ram Charitra Sah, Executive Director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Development (CEPHED), presented a paper entitled "Bio Monitoring of Mercury Contamination in Human Body and Policy Influence in Nepal" at the First National Summit of Health and Population Scientists in Nepal, which took place in April in Kathmandu. The paper relates to CEPHED's extensive work on mercury issues, especially bio-monitoring and policy initiatives, and was chosen as "Best Paper" among the 70 scientific papers presented at the summit.
IPENer Javier Souza Casadinho, Red de Acción en plaguicidas y sus Alternativas para América Latina (RAPAL), will participate in a debate organized by the Argentine Institute for Social Research, Economic and Public Policy on the subject of undermining natural resources and the environment. He will speak on "Los agrotóxicos y sus alternativas," and join other panelists from Greenpeace Argentina, the Assembly of Famatina, and the President of the General Audit Office. For more information, see:
