Lead Found in Asian Paint

Lead-containing paint, banned in the U.S. in 1978, is still common in several Asian countries, according to a study published in the September 2006 issue of

Environmental Research. Researchers tested new paint in China, India, and Malaysia, and found that two-thirds of it contained 0.5% or more lead by weight, the U.S. threshold in defining lead paint in existing housing, and 78% surpassed the current U.S. limit for new paint of 0.06%. Lead levels as high as 18.7% were sampled, according to Scott Clark, Ph.D., the study’s principal author. Since the study was performed, he said, similar results have been found in paint samples from South America and Africa. For comparison, when lead paint was common in the U.S., it often contained up to 50% lead by weight. Lead exposure can impair mental development and cause behavioral problems. The study is online at dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2005.11.002.