24 Oct, Kathmandu:

Do you have plans to paint your house in blazing paint colours to make it attractive? If you happen to be harbouring such thoughts, it is now time to shun it or else you will be risking your health according to experts, who claim that the colours used to paint the walls have harmful lead component.

This crucial knowledge that has evaded many was shared at a programme organized jointly by Ministry of Health, Centre for Public Health and Environmental Development (CEPHED) and IPN here on Sunday.

A week-long international awareness programme is being launched this week (October 23 to 29) with an aim to make Nepal lead-free and to save people from lead poisoning.

Experts have emphasized that 853,000 people die annually in the world due to lead poisoning. 6.6 per cent excess lead in the body may invite heart disease and in the long run cause cancer. A mother with lead content will give birth to a baby with lead poisoning and in men it causes high blood pressure and even depleted performance of sperm production.

In a health survey carried out by IPN with blood samples taken from 312 in Dharan and 304 in Kathmandu, 65 per cent of the total blood samples examined showed lead content. Among the children examined in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur, 90 per cent showed more than five micrograms of lead content.

In Nepal, the government has formulated a law barring use of more than 90 PPM lead content in the colour paint, but none of the colour manufacturers have mentioned the amount of lead content in their paint colour buckets.

At the programme, CEPHED Executive Director and environmentalist, Ram Charitra Sah, said the week-long programme was launched to free Nepal of lead and to instil awareness among the people of its dangers. He called for bringing the 90 PPM threshold stipulated by the government to zero level for sake of people’s good health and to protect their right to live.

Central Union of Painters, Plumbers, Electro and Construction Workers – Nepal (CUPPEC – Nepal) Chairman, Krishna Baral, noted that the lead content is not only found in paint colour but in vehicles’ brake system, colour and corrugated zinc sheets. RSS