Members of EcoWaste Coalition, a toxics watchdog, hold up signs warning people of possible lead content in lucky charms associated with the Chinese New Year. (INQUIRER PHOTO/ Alexis Corpuz)
Not even the six-syllable Kuan Yin mantra can ward off the danger of lead exposure from a set of prayer beads, according to an environment and consumer safety group.
The prayer beads set has been identified by the EcoWaste Coalition as among its “Dirtiest Dozen” of Chinese New Year charms with the highest level of lead.
Someone who recites the mantra “om mane padme hum” to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy and Compassion Kuan Yin while holding the prayer beads is supposed to be protected from all kinds of danger.
But the EcoWaste Coalition found 207,400 parts per million (ppm) of lead on a set of prayer beads adorned with a lead alloy pendant, topping its list of 42 toxic Chinese amulets and charms for the year of the Wooden Horse.
The group detected through a portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer excessive levels of toxic metals, including lead, arsenic, cadmium, antimony and chromium, in 42 of 50 samples bought from retail shops in the Binondo, Divisoria, and Quiapo districts in Manila at prices ranging from P20 to P350.
Of the tested samples, 34 had high levels of lead, 16 had arsenic while four had cadmium and none of them had labels informing buyers on the manufacturers, country of origin, or their chemical ingredients along with health and safety warnings.
EcoWaste’s Project Protect coordinator Thony Dizon said, “We find the presence of toxic metals in some amulets and charms incompatible with the much trumpeted luck and success that they are supposed to bring.”
He added, “There is a clear mismatch between the good flow of energy and prosperity offered by some of these talismans and activators and the bad chemicals that make them up.”
Yin Yang Bagua represents feng shui balance and protection and contains the eight trigrams (three-line symbols) used in Taoist cosmology’s basic principles of reality.