Let them eat lead - Successive govts ignored alerts: Analysts

G.S.Mudur, TT: New Delhi, June 6: Successive Indian governments have ignored repeated alerts and done little to introduce laws to curb practices that could explain how lead could slip into noodles and other raw and processed food, analysts say.

India introduced unleaded petrol in March 2000 but the governments since then have not moved enough to impose mandatory limits for lead in paints which remain a key source of environmental lead pollution in the country.

The country's food safety regulators yesterday asked Nestle India to recall and stop sale of Maggi noodles after samples from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat were found to have unacceptable levels of lead. Some scientists say it is possible the lead came from raw materials used for the noodles.

Research studies over the past decade have found what toxicologists say are unacceptably high levels of lead - a toxic element - in paints. Scientists say young children could inadvertently ingest paint dust after touching painted surfaces, while fine paint dust may contribute to environmental lead pollution.

"We've been struggling for mandatory standards for maximum permissible limits for lead in paints," said Satish Sinha, associate director with Toxics Link, a non-government organisation in New Delhi that has been analysing lead in paints every two years since 2007.

In 2009, the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning in India at the St John's Medical College, Bangalore, jointly with the Quality Council of India (QCI), had submitted a report to the Union commerce ministry's department of industrial policy, seeking regulations to limit lead in paints.

"Our report was backed by substantial data that showed high amounts of lead in paints being sold across the country," said Girdhar Gyani, former secretary-general of the QCI who is among a small group of researchers tracking the threat of lead in the environment.

While the ministry didn't do much, Gyani said, the Bureau of Indian Standards in 2013 -four years after the report was submitted - did revise its code for lead in paints from 1,000 parts per million (ppm) to 90 ppm. "But this is only a voluntary standard, many in the industry won't move unless pushed," Gyani said.

Toxics Link's latest survey conducted this year suggests that while most large manufacturers now produce paints whose lead content falls within 90ppm, lead levels continue to remain high in paints manufactured by the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). "We estimate paints from SMEs make up about 35 per cent of the market," Sinha said.

The Toxics Link survey picked up 101 oil-based enamel household paints from SMEs from Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra and found 32 samples with lead values greater than 10,000ppm. Only three paints from SMEs had values less than 90ppm, Sinha said.

The survey found that all paint colours, including white, had high levels of lead.

Health experts have also repeatedly raised concerns about the immersion of painted idols in rivers and lakes. "A painted 2kg idol could easily deposit at least eight to 10gm of lead into the water," said Thuppil Venkatesh, professor emeritus of biochemistry at St John's Medical College.

Tens of thousands of idols immersed into water bodies year after year could significantly contribute to environmental lead pollution, said Venkatesh who has, through the Indian Society for Lead Awareness and Research (In SLAR), conducted public outreach campaigns in Bengal and Karnataka, asking local communities to switch to unpainted idols.

"We estimate that about 30 per cent of the idols immersed in Karnataka are unpainted -this proportion should rise in the years to come," he said.

Over the past decade, studies by academic institutions across the country have documented the presence of lead in a range of farm produce such as milk and vegetables as well as in processed foods. A study by the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, in 2005 had revealed lead in the food-grade silver foil used on Indian sweets.