BOYSEN, DAVIS-LEAD FREE

BOYSEN and Davies are the first two companies in the world to apply and obtain the Lead Safe Paint® under a newly launched global certification program. This is a historic achievement in protecting us from paint poisons. These two major Filipino paint manufacturers will go down in history as pioneers of a global certification program for paint products with no added lead, a toxic substance associated with irreparable brain and central nervous system damage. “Lead-paint exposure contributes to 600,000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year.”--WHO

Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines, Inc. and Davies Philippines, Inc. have recently obtained their Lead Safe Paint® mark from the California-based SCS Global Services. After undergoing stringent verification procedures, including the analysis of paint samples in a US laboratory, SCS issued certificates confirming that 430 products representing the Boysen, Nation, Titan and Virtuoso brands, and 379 products carrying the Davies brand conform to the Lead Safe Paint® Certification Standard, which were discussed and endorsed by the Philippine Association of Paint Manufacturers and the EcoWaste Coalition through a multi-stakeholder process in 2014.

As part of the certification requirements, the two companies submitted signed pledges that say:

“1. We will not intentionally add any lead or lead compounds to any of our paint and coating products that are sold or distributed under the brand name designated below.”

“2. We will follow quality assurance procedures to ensure that paint and coating ingredients do not contain excessive amounts of lead or lead compounds that may cause our finished paint and coating products sold or distributed under the brand name designated below to exceed the criteria in the Lead Safe Paint® Certification Standard.”

“3. We will not manufacture, sell, distribute, export, or import paint and coating products sold or distributed under the brand name designated below with lead concentration levels that exceed the criteria in the Lead Safe Paint® Certification Standard.”

For the record, both companies have begun their shift to non-lead raw materials as driers or pigments in their paint formulations years before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, DENR, issued the “Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds” in December 2013. The CCO, as it is called, establishes a 90 parts per million (ppm) for lead in paint and sets a three-year phase-out period (2013-2016) for leaded decorative paints, and a longer six-year phase-out period (2013-2019) for leaded industrial paints. 

“The third party certification provides paint consumers with an independent verification that a particular paint does not contain added lead compounds and therefore does not create lead health hazards for vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women, workers and others,”-- Noli Abinales, President, EcoWaste Coalition, an active member of IPEN, an international non-profit NGO that owns the Lead Safe Paint® Standard and its certification mark, and licenses its use to companies once they are certified.

To further drive the demand for certified Lead Safe Paint® products, major paint consumers should better adopt a Lead Safe Paint® Procurement Policy to serve as guidance for their purchasing unit that only certified products shall be used for both interior and exterior coatings.

According to the EcoWaste Coalition, a Lead Safe Paint® Procurement Policy will:

a). Contribute to the proactive prevention of childhood lead exposure through lead paint and dust; b). Make the maintenance, repair and renovation of painted surfaces simpler and less hazardous; c). Minimize the hazardous content of construction debris and waste and make their management less complicated; d). Avoid the exorbitant costs associated with lead paint abatement and removal; e). Boost market demand for lead safe paint and reduce prices with the increased demand; f). Increase stakeholders awareness and understanding of lead poisoning and its prevention.

Homes, schools and day care centers, playgrounds and sports facilities, government offices, hospitals, shopping malls and other paint users should heed this timely advice from the EcoWaste Coalition to prevent children’s exposure from lead in paint, dust and soil.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “childhood lead exposure is estimated to contribute to about 600,000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year.”

Even at low levels, childhood lead exposure can result to serious and irreversible health effects, including permanent brain and central nervous system damage, mental retardation, learning disabilities, disorders in coordination, visual, spatial and language skills, blood and reproductive damage and behavioural problems such as aggression and violence. 

For more information about Lead Safe Paint®, see www.leadsafepaint.org; EcoWaste Coalition” <[email protected]>