Thanks for writing this! Do you know a resource or link that lists which countries still do not have lead paint regulation? And is there a ranking of which countries is it most promising to work on lead poisoning reduction? I am from the Philippines and I think we have lead paint regulation, but I have heard it’s not yet well-implemented. I’d like to know where we fare if there is a ranking of which countries is it most promising to work on this problem on.
Hi Brian! Thanks for commenting. Here is a link which lists countries which do not currently have lead paint regulation. We didn’t come across any ranking of most promising countries to target, but we have collated this information ourselves. We’ll be publicly releasing our country selection spreadsheet in the coming weeks and this will likely provide you with the information that you need.
Until then, I can pass on some relevant information about our findings. From our research, we found that the Philippines does currently have legislation (as you mentioned), and is not currently neglected by other actors (EcoWaste Coalition and IPEN are active there).
We found that there are still significant levels of lead poisoning in the Philippines (see annex), but we are not confident that this necessarily indicates that the current legislation is not well enforced. It could be an indicator that there is significant exposure to lead from other sources, or it could just be that the effects have been delayed because legislation takes time to have impact. Paint bans need to be in effect for a few years before health impacts can be noticed.
On the other hand, it could well be an enforcement issue. Controls were introduced in 2015 to ensure that paint has lead levels below 90ppm, but in 2017 it was found that the Philippines still had 23% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 90ppm, 16% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 600ppm, and 12% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 10,000ppm. That might imply that the controls aren’t being followed perfectly. However, it’s also been three years since that study was done, so things may have changed.
Yup, this was useful Jack! We are wondering though if EcoWaste Coalition would still be a cost-effective and/or evidence-based charity that we should recommend donors who want to give to local Philippine charities.
I am assuming that we can still recommend them, but we are finding it hard to model their cost-effectiveness given that it’s a policy charity, so we may have to rely on other types of rationale or argumentation. I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have on how we might be able to still assess whether or not it’s still cost-effective (or effective in general) for local donors to donate to the EcoWaste Coalition. Thanks!
Thanks for writing this! Do you know a resource or link that lists which countries still do not have lead paint regulation? And is there a ranking of which countries is it most promising to work on lead poisoning reduction? I am from the Philippines and I think we have lead paint regulation, but I have heard it’s not yet well-implemented. I’d like to know where we fare if there is a ranking of which countries is it most promising to work on this problem on.
Hi Brian! Thanks for commenting. Here is a link which lists countries which do not currently have lead paint regulation. We didn’t come across any ranking of most promising countries to target, but we have collated this information ourselves. We’ll be publicly releasing our country selection spreadsheet in the coming weeks and this will likely provide you with the information that you need.
Until then, I can pass on some relevant information about our findings. From our research, we found that the Philippines does currently have legislation (as you mentioned), and is not currently neglected by other actors (EcoWaste Coalition and IPEN are active there).
We found that there are still significant levels of lead poisoning in the Philippines (see annex), but we are not confident that this necessarily indicates that the current legislation is not well enforced. It could be an indicator that there is significant exposure to lead from other sources, or it could just be that the effects have been delayed because legislation takes time to have impact. Paint bans need to be in effect for a few years before health impacts can be noticed.
On the other hand, it could well be an enforcement issue. Controls were introduced in 2015 to ensure that paint has lead levels below 90ppm, but in 2017 it was found that the Philippines still had 23% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 90ppm, 16% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 600ppm, and 12% of their paint with lead levels exceeding 10,000ppm. That might imply that the controls aren’t being followed perfectly. However, it’s also been three years since that study was done, so things may have changed.
Hope this was useful!
Yup, this was useful Jack! We are wondering though if EcoWaste Coalition would still be a cost-effective and/or evidence-based charity that we should recommend donors who want to give to local Philippine charities.
I am assuming that we can still recommend them, but we are finding it hard to model their cost-effectiveness given that it’s a policy charity, so we may have to rely on other types of rationale or argumentation. I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have on how we might be able to still assess whether or not it’s still cost-effective (or effective in general) for local donors to donate to the EcoWaste Coalition. Thanks!