Central, East European and Central Asian countries have made a stand about the risks of lead in paint during the international lead poisoning prevention week of action on 23-29 October.

Following the successful phase-out of lead in petrol - preventing more than 1.2 million premature deaths a year and reducing lead in blood levels by at least 90 per cent –a strong drive has taken place to eliminate lead in paint.

Not only did the elimination of lead in petrol improve health, it lowered crime. Since lead is attributed to antisocial behaviour, it was estimated that 58 million crimes were avoided by the removal of lead in petrol – saving $2.4 trillion each year.

The international week of action aimed to portray the remaining issues with lead worldwide. In the pan-European region, a flash mob, series of lectures and art competition was held to raise awareness throughout Albania - thanks to the Environmental Center for Development, Education and Networking. Posters, seminars and presentations meanwhile attracted the attention of medical students, kindergartens and hospitals across Tbilisi, Georgia.

Meetings with paint store owners took place across Moscow, Russia; in an attempt to move businesses away from selling lead paint. Additionally, Azerbaijan held a press conference about household paints and health.

Lead is known for corroding societies and economies worldwide. According to the World Health Organisation, 0.6 per cent of the global burden of disease is instigated by lead. Lead exposure can cause learning disabilities, antisocial behaviour, reduced fertility and a heightened risk of renal and cardiovascular disease.

Children and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to lead poisoning. Every year there are 600,000 new diagnoses of children with intellectual disability caused by lead poisoning, as reported by the World Health Organisation.

Earlier this year, UN Environment and the Government of the Republic of Moldova hosted a regional workshop that gave 17 countries tools to combat lead poisoning. At the time of the event, only five of those countries had legally-binding controls on lead in paint in place but some have since signalled their intention to develop them.

To read an interview with renowned Russian scientist Dr Olga Speranskaya on lead in paint in the pan-European region, click here.

For more information please contact vanessa.burrows@unep.org

The threats, challenges and opportunities of defending human rights from an environmental point of view have been shared by award-winning activists in a rich exchange hosted by the Geneva Environment Network.

“Human rights defenders face enormous challenges that are not diminishing, contrary to what we may think from our comfortable corners,” reminded Sylvie Motard, Deputy Director of UN Environment’s Europe Office, opening the event on 31 October.

Europe is not exempt from the oppression of good work by activists, stressed Monika Griefhan, Chair of the Right Livelihoods Award Board. In the UK for example, police have increased surveillance of environmental groups, she noted in her introduction.

Every week, two human rights defenders worldwide are estimated to lose their lives. The rise in deaths – thought to number 760 between 2002 and 2013 - is in line with a dramatic increase in demand for natural resources.

Dedication and inspiration

Alla Yaroshinskaya is a Right Livelihoods Award Laureate who – despite oppression – helped reveal the true effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and shared her story at the Geneva event.

Having witnessed the grave health effects of the nuclear incident first-hand, Ms Yaroshinskaya was denied the chance to report on them in the newspaper she worked for. However, she bravely spoke out on the issue on national television and distributed a 600-page secret document on Chernobyl’s effects.

Ms Yaroshinskaya’s book on the disaster has since been published in five languages and she has even helped negotiate an extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. “We try to push our authorities to do things in the interests of ordinary people,” she explained.

János Vargha meanwhile shared his experience of halting a project to build a dam on the Danube which was riddled with corruption and would have decimated biodiversity. When his article on the case was denied publication, Mr Vargha set up petitions and led a demonstration in front of the Hungarian Parliament.

As a result, the case is one of the very few engineering projects ever to have been halted on environmental grounds with the project 30% completed.

Global issue

“There are environmental human rights defenders putting their lives at risk for all of us – UN Environment is really proud of them,” said the organisation’s Legal Officer Barbara Ruis, moderating the session. “We do not see the environment as a stand-alone issue,” she stressed.

“Human rights defenders may now have the right to speak out – but it is the duty of the authorities to listen,” said Lukas Heinzer, of Switzerland’s permanent mission to the UN, as part of his summary of the discussion.

For more information please click here or write to diana.rizzolio@unep.org

The pan-European region is not exempt to the health risks posed by lead in paint – yet products containing the heavy metal can easily be replaced at low cost, renowned Russian scientist Dr Olga Speranksaya has underlined in an exclusive interview.

A UN Environment Champion of the Earth in 2011, Dr Speranskaya is known worldwide for her work to reduce the harmful impact of toxic chemicals in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

While lead compounds are banned from products used by consumers in the European Union, other countries - especially from the above-mentioned regions - still face significant problems associated with lead paint, Dr Speranskaya warns.

As co-chair of the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), the scientist has helped NGOs implement more than 70 projects on toxic chemicals in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

“This year we (IPEN) analyzed paint samples from nine Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian countries. Unfortunately, lead contents in many samples substantially exceed the most progressive regulation of 90 ppm adopted in the US, Canada, the Philippines and Nepal,” Dr Speranskaya explained.

“I believe that the situation with lead paint in Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian states is the result of poor legislation and enforcement,” she stressed, with seven countries in the region currently lacking regulations against lead in paint.

However, more lead-free paints are now available on the market, the award-winning scientist notes. The cost of replacing lead in paint is furthermore low: “paint manufacturers in many countries have told us that the cost of replacing lead in paint is very low, and can easily be done without raising product prices,” she reveals.

Adoption of a 90 parts per million standard for lead in paint – the threshold set in many of the most progressive countries - would simplify international trade and prevent the deliberate addition of lead compounds to indoor decorative paints, says Dr Speranskaya.

To read the full interview – including more advice on governments seeking to stamp the heavy metal out of paint - please click here.

For more information please write to mijke.hertoghs@unep.org

UN Environment has contributed to the first ever formal ministerial meeting on climate change and the environment of Eastern Partnership countries.

Ministers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine met with their counterparts from the EU member states as well as with the European Commissioners for Environment and Neighbourhood Policy and international and non-governmental organizations in Luxembourg on 17-18 October.

At a dinner preceding the formal meeting, the ministers reflected on the benefits of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation - and ways in which the transition can be carried further - through a presentation by the “Greening Economies in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership Countries” (EaP GREEN) project.

EaP GREEN has already led to approved national action plans and laws for the Green Economy transition, cooperation taking place on resource efficiency with over 200 companies and farmers being supported to attend international trade fairs, UN Environment Regional Director Jan Dusik highlighted in a presentation together with Stephen Sicars, Environment Director at the UN Industrial Development Organisation, at the ministerial dinner.

The project ensures that national plans and policies get on a sustainable path, supports the use of environmental assessments and helps demonstration projects such as on organic farming and more sustainable manufacturing get underway. It is funded by the EU and delivered by the two UN agencies together with the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

During the ministerial meeting, which was held back-to-back with the EU Environment Council, several ministers expressed their wish for EaP GREEN to continue in future.

In the first Declaration adopted by Eastern Partnership countries and the EU and its member states, both sides committed to pursue regional cooperation on environment, climate action and sustainable development in the frame of this partnership. Ministers also agreed to actively engage in and enable effective implementation of programmes such as EaP GREEN.

In the Declaration, the countries committed to further greening their economies by – for example – ensuring that all policy planning takes the environment into account and that different ministries work together towards environmental objectives, given their interdependent nature

“The EU will continue to support Eastern Partnership countries in their efforts to build a resource and energy-efficient economy, to the benefit of all our citizens,” said Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement. Given the transboundary nature of environmental challenges, the cooperation is “imperative,” affirmed his counterpart for the Environment, Commissioner Karmenu Vella.

Several Eastern Partnership countries also made commitments to take green economy actions under the Batumi Initiative on Green Economy adopted earlier this year. Moldova is to support green small and medium enterprises, Belarus is to develop a law on organic agriculture, while both countries committed to implement their national green economy actions plans, for example.

For more information please write to rie.tsutsumi@unep.org