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Issue 46
, 2013
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* UPDATE

South East Asia Regional Conference on Lead Poisoning, (24-25 October 2013)

Source: Toxics Link, Date: , 2013

 The South East Asia Regional Conference on Lead Poisoning was held at The Park Hotel in New Delhi. The conference was organised by Toxics Link, in partnership with World Health Organisation, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi) and the Lata Medical Research Foundation, Nagpur. The two-day conference focused on health impacts of lead, particularly those arising from lead in paints. It also served as a platform for sharing information and sensitizing key authorities on how lead affects the children and how best can this be dealt with, in the South East Asian countries.

Bollywood superstar and brand ambassador of Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan supported the cause which was visible in his statement: “Lead causes irreversible brain damage in children. It is preventable. Avoid exposures in children by choosing house paints that are lead free. Wash their hands frequently. Let’s work together to make this world a safer place for our Children.” ( The message can be viewed ion Toxics Link’s website: http://toxicslink.org/?q=message-sent-shah-rukh-khan-south-east-asia-regional-conference-lead-poisoning ).

Medical practitioners, paint industry, educationists, policy makers, NGO’s, researchers and media were present at the conference which resulted in a dynamic exchange of thoughts, ideas, and action plans. Apart from participants from the host nation – India, the conference also saw representatives from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar share their experiences in the field of eliminating lead from paints. Since the relevant ministries were conspicuous by their absence, the forum put in place an action plan to engage these ministries through sustained dialogue and campaigns.

Some action plan points were as follows:

  •  Petitioning the government, jointly with the industry, to bring in legislation regulating Lead content in paint
  •  Build on a Task Force including members from the concerned NGO’s like Toxics Link, paint industry and government  agencies, to put together a strategy on the lines of the successful e-waste legislation campaign, to take forward the cause of regulating Lead levels in paint
  •  Build a task force specific to schools, with the responsibility of designing communications for Parents’ awareness
  •  Encourage prominent players in the Paint industry to advertise their “Lead-free” status
  •  Reach out to retailers’ forum to support and recommend sales of Lead free paints
  •  Create a specialist task force for Social Media Management, to create a sustained campaign mobilising online awareness and support

For more info :

http://toxicslink.org/docs/lead_in_paints/Lead-in-Paint2013.pdf

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