22 August 2026, Quezon City. Even with a national ban on lead paint manufacturing, the EcoWaste Coalition found another imported spray paint brand sold online with lead-containing variants. Lead, a highly toxic chemical, harms various bodily functions, severely impacting the brain and nervous system.
Bought at a discounted price of P125 per 450 mL can from an online dealer, the three variants of China-made Tecpaint Aerosol Spray Paint were found to contain lead above the limit set under the DENR-issued Chemical Control Order (CCO) for lead and lead compounds.
The CCO bans the use of lead in paint manufacturing and sets a maximum limit of 90 parts per million (ppm). The lead paint ban applies not only to locally produced paints but also to imported paints sold in the domestic market, including e-commerce sites.
With the aid of a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzer, the EcoWaste Coalition detected 46,370 ppm, 38,570 ppm, and 6,111 ppm in the grass green, Jialing red, and grain yellow Tecpaint spray paints, respectively, way in excess of the 90 ppm limit.
As per XRF screening, this China-made spray paint contains 4.637 percent or 46,370 ppm lead, way above the 90 ppm limit for lead in paint under China and Philippine regulations.
The products were manufactured in 2024 (grass green), 2025 (grain yellow), and 2026 (Jialing red).
Aside from Tecpaint, the EcoWaste Coalition discovered two other China-made spray paint brands with lead content, Corolla and Jiuniuxing, during its market surveillance in August 2026.
Six colors of Corolla Spray Paint screened positive for lead up to 100,000 ppm, while the three colors of Jiuniuxing Spray Paint contained up to 54,340 ppm of lead.
Paint and dust containing lead are a major source of childhood lead exposure, which can have a range of long-term health effects, including damage to the brain and nervous system, lowered IQ, reading, learning, and speaking difficulties, slowed growth, hearing loss, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, aggression, and other behavioral issues.
Lead poisoning in adults can cause joint and muscle pain, mood disorders, memory and concentration problems, abnormal and reduced sperm count in men, miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth in women, high blood pressure, and hypertension.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “there is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.”
The EcoWaste Coalition calls for action to stop lead paint dumping, including by controlling the global trade of lead chromates through the Rotterdam Convention.
To block illegal lead paint imports, the EcoWaste Coalition demands stricter rules and wants lead chromates, the main pigments used in making lead-based paints, included on the Rotterdam Convention’s list of hazardous chemicals to control their global trade.
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Reference:
https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DAO-2013-24-CCO-Lead.pdf
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health
