Home interior-Lead in house paint pose a huge health hazard
Everyone wants their homes to look aesthetic as well as functional. It is no surprise then that the home interior industry has been blooming in the recent past. There is however a downside to the whole home interior business as the use of toxic chemicals and substances in a lot of products go unnoticed largely due to lack of proper awareness in people. Many substances including paints, children’s furniture and toys have a high lead content which can be detrimental to one’s health and especially harmful to children living in the household.
Lead exposure in home paint
Paints used in home interiors pose a huge health hazard owing to their high lead toxicity content along with the presence of several volatile organic chemicals. Medical evidence has suggested that paint industry workers are usually the ones badly hit by paint toxicity induced diseases known as Chronic Solvent-induced Encephalopathy or CSE. Lead and other toxic chemicals are used in paints to increase their drying process making them more resistance to moisture.
While adding lead can increase the overall durability of the plant, lead when exposed to sunlight and humidity spreads in the air as contaminated dust. Inhaling of such toxic dust induced with lead and other harmful chemicals can lead to serious medical complications including tremors, fatigue and a host of neurological ailments.
Children are usually at the highest risks since lead paints have found its way in children toys and furniture. Since children are prone to putting toys in their mouth, the use of lead based paints have be extremely harmful for the growing up kids. Medical experts believe that children between one to six years are at the highest risk to ingest lead contaminated dust from toys and wall paints.
Poor Quality Standards in India
According to a news source, a private research conducted by Asian Lead Elimination Project studied 250 different paints in India across 147 brands. The report concluded that paints sold in India have the highest concentration of lead compared to most other Asian nations. The average lead concentration in non branded paints was as high as 22,800 parts per million more than 10 times higher than the BIS approved standard of 1000 ppm (parts per million).
BIS Revamps lead standards in paint
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has taken the report seriously and has refined its lad content limits in paints to 90 ppm from the earlier levels of 1000 ppm. With Scientific evidences concluding a direct relation between kidney disease in children and pregnant women to lead content, BIS has made sure it follows the globally acceptable limits.
As an end-consumer, one must always take note of the lead content before buying any paints or polished furniture for the house interiors. While unbranded paints can be cheaper than most branded ones, they must be avoided at all costs as they usually do not follow BIS standards and pose a huge health risk to children and adults living in the home. Selecting water based paints must be given a priority over oil based and other synthetic paints as water based paints usually have no lead content.
