1) We don’t know of paint chemists’ WhatsApp groups, but there could some out there, or some other kind of association that we could offer assistance to directly. There are definitely paint manufacturer associations in some countries, and this seems like a good approach.
2) It’d depend on the size of the country, but probably only one analysis machine would be needed in most of the African countries we work in, and it would have a lot of spare capacity for analysing other things or samples from other countries. Yes, the labs can be profitable and can test for multiple things using the same equipment (other sources of lead, other heavy metals), but there would need to be a demand for analysis. It could be that the demand will be created by regulation, and labs will start opening up once there’s a market for it. But if governments are reluctant to put in regulation until there is local testing capacity, it could be hard to make a start.
Thanks for the reply! … Well, that seems like a unique profit opportunity for the government that first invests into a testing facility: when countries pass regulation, then they would test in the lab which has been built first.
Thanks for these thoughts!
1) We don’t know of paint chemists’ WhatsApp groups, but there could some out there, or some other kind of association that we could offer assistance to directly. There are definitely paint manufacturer associations in some countries, and this seems like a good approach.
2) It’d depend on the size of the country, but probably only one analysis machine would be needed in most of the African countries we work in, and it would have a lot of spare capacity for analysing other things or samples from other countries. Yes, the labs can be profitable and can test for multiple things using the same equipment (other sources of lead, other heavy metals), but there would need to be a demand for analysis. It could be that the demand will be created by regulation, and labs will start opening up once there’s a market for it. But if governments are reluctant to put in regulation until there is local testing capacity, it could be hard to make a start.
Thanks for the reply! … Well, that seems like a unique profit opportunity for the government that first invests into a testing facility: when countries pass regulation, then they would test in the lab which has been built first.