Basic School Supplies Photo (Courtesy of www.thewardfordfoundation.blogspot.com)
LESS than two weeks before classes open, the Food and Drugs Administration collected samples of school supplies from downtown Cebu City stores to check if these contain toxic chemicals.
Pencil cases, pencils, water colors and correction fluids of different brands will undergo toxicity tests in the FDA laboratory in Manila.
“These products will be sent to the Central Office for laboratory tests and if proven to be high in chemical content, an advisory shall be released to recall said brands,” said Rica Aumentado of the FDA.
Last Monday, the Ecological Waste Coalition, a toxics watchdog issued a warning urging parents to be cautious in buying school supplies that may contain lead, a chemical that can reduce a child’s intelligence.
Lead, a neurotoxin, is capable of damaging the central nervous system. In which, exposure to lead may lower a child’s intelligence quotient and affect educational performance.
The group’s latest advisory against lead exposure through some school supplies was triggered by its latest investigation that detected high concentrations of the brain-damaging poison above the US limit of 90 ppm for lead in paint and surface coatings of some school supply brands.
Aside from lead added to petrol, the World Health Organization has identified other major sources of children’s exposure to lead, including lead-based paints and pigments, lead in products such as toys, lead solder in food cans, lead in ceramic glazes, lead in electronic waste, lead released by incineration of lead-containing waste and lead in the food chain via contaminated soil.