‘Most paint products cause lead poisoning’

Deepthi MR speaks to Dr Venkatesh Thuppil, principal advisor, Quality Council of India, and National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India and professor, department of Bio-Chemistry and Bio-Physics, St John’s Medical College.

What is lead poisoning?
Lead poisoning is also called ‘plumbism’. This is because of the ill-effect of lead and lead-containing materials on various organs. Lead has no beneficial effects and children and women are most vulnerable. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1.2 crore people are overexposed to lead and 99% of the most serious cases are in the developing world.
 
How does it affect people?
Lead gets absorbed through lungs, intestine and skin. It gets accumulated in red blood cells (RBCs) and other organs. Lead enters the foetus from the mothers’ blood. Once it gets accumulated in the brain, it cannot be removed. Lead is also stored in bones for a long period. Lead especially affects the nervous system and kidneys. In children, lead decreases IQ and in adults, causes kidney-, muscle- and nerve-related disorders.
 
What kind of products have lead?
Lead is present in products used for everyday life. We cannot live without lead. It was used in paints until 1970. In petrol, it is used as tetraethyl lead. It is commonly found in ceiling dust at home. People working in industries using lead in any form are exposed to it. It is found in solder and ceramic glaze. At home, it is found in TV sets, computer monitors, cosmetics like lipsticks, nail polish and even in bindis.
 
Is paint used in swings and jungle jims harmful?
Yes, more than 93% of paints manufactured in India is lead-based. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has fixed an upper limit of lead in paints at 1,000 ppm. However, in developed countries, lead content is below 600 ppm. In the US, lead content in domestic paints is below 90 ppm. With recent efforts in India by Quality Council of India, major paint manufacturers are bringing down the lead content.
 
How does lead affect children? What are the symptoms of lead poisoning?
Lowering of IQ, short attention spans, anaemia are some of the effects. Elevated lead can cause hearing and reading disabilities and high concentration (around 100 micrograms per 100 ml of blood) can cause death of a child. As of March 2000, more than
50% of children below 12 years
of age in 2000 had blood lead levels above 10 milligram per decilitre.
 
Have you identified the paint colours that have high levels of toxicity?
Yes, yellow paint and many coloured pigments have high lead content. Even kumkum and sindoor have abnormal levels of lead in them. Many crayons and painted pencils cause lead poisoning in children.
 
Among colours, how do you define higher or lower levels
of toxicity?
It is difficult to classify unless we test them. At the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning, we have highly-sensitive equipment, XRF, to measure lead and other toxic heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
 
How does one avoid lead in their day-to-day life?
We need awareness programmes, monitoring of blood lead levels, preventing usage of lead-based products and enacting legislation to control pollution due to lead. The most important step is to prevent use of painted idols in water bodies.