A lot of the recent discussion in the lead space has focused on sources such as paint, spices, ceramics, and cookware. In terms of trends, my (low-confidence) sense is that these sources of exposure are likely either plateauing or decreasing. But the use of lead in batteries is expected to increase a lot (based on a quick search, the market may double in the next 10-15 years).
1) How much do you think we should be focusing on batteries – and informal ULAB recycling – compared to other sources of exposure?
2) Are there any prevention/mitigation strategies in this space that people are pursuing that you’re excited about? Or approaches that you’d be keen for people to explore?
The most direct focus of LEAF’s source-specific mitigation work is paint and spices, but that’s largely because of tractability: these are both products where there are only weak economic incentives to use lead, and where production is fairly consolidated. That makes them easier to regulate. For other sources (batteries, cookware, cosmetics etc.), we want to fund more exploratory work: piloting and testing regulatory interventions rather than scaling them.
I think figuring out what to do on informal ULAB recycling is really important. ~80% of global lead is used in lead acid batteries, and informal recycling is responsible for particularly severe cases of exposure for people living nearby.
A benefit of all the recent attention on lead exposure is I expect we’ll increasingly see requests for assistance from governments, so it would be very helpful to have “best practice” playbooks we could apply to ULAB regulation. To my knowledge, those don’t currently exist (though there are some resources here and here). Intuitively, I’m excited by market-based solutions like tax breaks or even subsidies for well-regulated formal sector battery recycling to make it cost-competitive with unsafe informal recycling. But that’s pretty weakly held. Pure Earth have been thinking about this a lot, as have the US EPA and others.
A lot of the recent discussion in the lead space has focused on sources such as paint, spices, ceramics, and cookware. In terms of trends, my (low-confidence) sense is that these sources of exposure are likely either plateauing or decreasing. But the use of lead in batteries is expected to increase a lot (based on a quick search, the market may double in the next 10-15 years).
1) How much do you think we should be focusing on batteries – and informal ULAB recycling – compared to other sources of exposure?
2) Are there any prevention/mitigation strategies in this space that people are pursuing that you’re excited about? Or approaches that you’d be keen for people to explore?
The most direct focus of LEAF’s source-specific mitigation work is paint and spices, but that’s largely because of tractability: these are both products where there are only weak economic incentives to use lead, and where production is fairly consolidated. That makes them easier to regulate. For other sources (batteries, cookware, cosmetics etc.), we want to fund more exploratory work: piloting and testing regulatory interventions rather than scaling them.
I think figuring out what to do on informal ULAB recycling is really important. ~80% of global lead is used in lead acid batteries, and informal recycling is responsible for particularly severe cases of exposure for people living nearby.
A benefit of all the recent attention on lead exposure is I expect we’ll increasingly see requests for assistance from governments, so it would be very helpful to have “best practice” playbooks we could apply to ULAB regulation. To my knowledge, those don’t currently exist (though there are some resources here and here). Intuitively, I’m excited by market-based solutions like tax breaks or even subsidies for well-regulated formal sector battery recycling to make it cost-competitive with unsafe informal recycling. But that’s pretty weakly held. Pure Earth have been thinking about this a lot, as have the US EPA and others.
That’s really helpful. Thank you!