The Lead Exposure Elimination Project (“LEEP”)

In the often-uncertain and contentious field of environmental health and safety, one of the few areas of absolute certainty is the deleterious effects of lead on the human body. This consensus follows decades of widespread use of lead—in particular, as an additive to gasoline and paint, when it became apparent that even tiny amounts of lead posed a danger, especially to children. Lead exposure has been conclusively linked to mental impairment, heart disease, and cancer, and an emerging, but increasingly strong line of research has connected the prevalence of lead paint and leaded gasoline to elevated levels of violent crime in the United States—and its subsequent decline in the 1990s.[1] The United States banned the use of lead in residential paints starting in 1978,[2] and leaded gasoline was phased out starting in 1973 before being banned for use in passenger cars in 1996.[3] Although lead is a long-lasting contaminant that remains in the environment, in particular in soil, for extended periods of time, these eradication efforts have reaped major benefits in the United States: Between 1976 and 2016, the average blood lead levels for Americans declined by a whopping 95 percent.[4] Globally, however, the story is very different. The United Nations began encouraging its member states to phase out leaded gasoline in 2002, but the last nation to do so, Algeria, didn’t use up its supply until June of 2021.[5]

Worse, lead paints remain in use around the world; only about half of countries have laws against their use, with developing countries, in particular those in Africa, overrepresented among the countries lacking legal controls.[6] And even in countries that have banned the use of lead paints, the manufacture and sale to other nations remains a common and lucrative business practice.[7] All told, lead exposure is responsible for an estimated 22 million years of full health lost every year.[8] In short, lead exposure remains a pressing concern for millions of people, especially children, around the world, making abatement projects as urgent as ever.

            Based in London, the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (“LEEP”) has been taking these concerns seriously since its inception in late 2020, making a remarkable impact in its relatively short history.[9] Founded by experts in the fields of medicine, economics, and international development,[10] LEEP works with local communities, governments, and other stakeholders worldwide to address health threats posed by lead paint at all stages of regulation, development, sale, and application of paints.[11] Specifically, the organization provides assistance to manufacturers in removing lead from their products, supports governments in the drafting an implementation of laws and regulations, works with local communities to ensure that lead paints are replaced and pathways for contamination eliminated.[12]

            Industry outreach has reaped benefits in Senegal and Zimbabwe, for example, In 2023, LEEP conducted a study that showed that 29 percent of paints tested in Senegal contained dangerous amounts of lead—including paints from almost half of brands tested, some of which were imported from the United States and China.[13] In the wake of that study, LEEP worked in tandem with the Senegalese Ministry of Health and Poison Control Centre to host a workshop for industry leaders, wherein they educated the leaders on lead paint’s health impacts; regulations and standards on lead in paint promulgated by Senegal and ECOWAS, the West African economic union; and procedures by which manufacturers can eliminate lead from their products.[14] Around the same time, LEEP and the Environmental Management Agency of Zimbabwe conducted a similar study and workshop in the southern African nation.[15] The results in Zimbabwe were even more stark, with 34 percent of paints showing unsafe levels of lead, and 90 percent of those samples containing at least 15 times the recommended maximum.[16] Following the industry workshop, LEEP found that at least four paint manufacturers, including three of Zimbabwe’s largest, had begun testing materials to replace lead in their paints.[17]

            In places like Burundi and Pakistan, LEEP has worked with local and national governments to develop, implement, and enforce standards for lead levels in paint. In February of 2024, LEEP and the government of Burundi conducted a study like those in Senegal and Zimbabwe.[18] Based on those findings, the Burundi Bureau of Standards and Quality Control, Ministry of the Environment, and Ministry of Commerce convened manufacturers to encourage them to transition to lead-free alternatives for their paints.[19] At the same time, Burundi officials have signified that they intend to adopt binding regulations as to the maximum legal amount of lead in paints, based on the otherwise voluntary standards provided by the East African Community, an economic alliance comprising Burundi and several of its neighboring countries.[20] In Pakistan, the challenge was less in the adoption of standards reducing or eliminating lead in paint, and more in the enforcement of preexisting standards. There, as in the African countries previously discussed, LEEP and government partners convened a workshop for Pakistani paint manufacturers.[21] While Pakistan had previously introduced a mandatory standard in 2017, the country’s Standards & Quality Control Authority found that many manufacturers were not adhering to that standard.[22] Through the industry workshop, LEEP and Pakistani authorities were able to identify sourcing problems for paint manufacturers and provide directed assistance to those manufacturers.[23] Since the workshop, most of Pakistan’s largest paint suppliers have begun or accelerated their move away from lead-based pigments.[24]

            Not all of LEEP’s findings, however, have been negative. In 2023, recognizing the longstanding threat of spices adulterated with lead chromate to enhance color, the organization undertook testing of spices sold in Ethiopia and Turkey, two countries with higher levels of lead exposure in children.[25] However, while the study found some elevated levels of lead—and lead contamination has been a known problem in Bangladesh, the United States, and other countries—there was no evidence of widespread, systematic adulteration.[26]

Undoing the damage of lead’s use in global commerce will be slow, painstaking work across a decentralized playing field. Nevertheless, extensive progress has been made in recent decades, and groups like LEEP and its partners are contributing to worldwide efforts.