KATHMANDU: Environmental health and child health advocates, governments, and paint industries are uniting this week (October 26-31) to observe International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW).

Calling for the protection of the children, they have urged the governments to adopt and effectively implement legislation to protect the children’s health.

In Nepal, the Centre for Public Health and Environmental Development (CEPHED) with the support from National Health Education, Information and Communication Centre (NHEICC), and the State governments and WHO country office for Nepal are organizing series of national level program on “Prevention of Lead Exposure through Effective Implementation of Lead Paint Standards in Nepal”.

Over 65 percent of the Nepali children have more than 5 microgram/deciliter of blood lead level that calls for immediate response of Blood Lead Level (BLL) abatement program from the concerned authority — response including developing and adopting national level BLL screening programme, allotment of sufficient human-resource and facilities such as well-equipped laboratories in each state, said Ram Charitra Sah, executive director of CEPHED, and environment scientist.

Mohan Katuwal, senior vice president of Federation of Small and Cottage Industry, said that the efforts of paint industries were more encouraging than previous years in creating lead-free environment.

“However, more needs to be done to achieve 100 percent compliance of lead-paint standards,” he added.