KATHMANDU: Children are at high risk of poisoning from lead-laden objects, speakers at an interaction program in the capital city said on Saturday.

The experts and scientists were speaking during the interaction programme organised by Nepal Polymer Institute and co-organized by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), and Nepal Development Research Institute and RECAST, TU, on the occasion of the International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week observed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Associate Professor of the TU Dr. Jyoti Giri said that lead would have serious impacts on human health due to the use of different colors and cosmetics that contain lead. “Such objects invite different diseases by causing harm in the children’s mind,” Dr. Giri said.

He further argued that the lead-laden things even cause impacts on crops through water and soil.
The experts argued that the smokes coming out of the industries and factories, chemical fertilizers and toxic add to the impacts of the lead.

Likewise, Executive Director of Center for Public Health and Environmental Promotion Development (CEPHED) Ram Charitra Sah said that the paints used for house painting contain a maximum volume of lead compared to other things while calling for its minimization from the government side.

The government representatives should fix a standard after doing research on it, he argued.
Similarly, Director at Nepal Telecommunications Authority Min Prasad Aryal suggested that mobile phones should be used only by considering the lead-laden substances to be used in the phones.

Nepal Chemical Society’s General Secretary Dr. Bhanubhakta Neupane, Executive Director of RECAST Rameshwor Adhikari, former Minister Ganesh Shah, Vice-Chancellor of NAST Sunil Babu Shrestha, and other experts called for experts’ suggestions and feedback to reduce the pollution caused from the lead.