By Dumbani Mzale in New York, USA:
President Lazarus Chakwera has lamented the extent of lead poisoning among children in Malawi, telling the international community that his government is committed to fighting lead poisoning by creating a national roadmap for coordinating the end of lead exposure.
Lead is a metal that can harm children when it gets into their bodies. It is basically a toxic substance with wide-ranging negative health effects that are detrimental to a child’s growth, behaviour and ability to learn.
Addressing heads of State and government as well as other high-level international dignitaries during the launch of a Partnership for a Lead-Free Future in New York, United States of America, Chakwera said a year after he took office, his administration discovered high levels of lead in paint that was being sold on the Malawian market, resulting in the exposure of over three million Malawian children to lead poisoning.
Chakwera said while his administration had been pouring millions of dollars in education, the outcomes of that education were constantly being compromised by the impairment of children’s cognitive development caused by lead poisoning.
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Providing the magnitude of the problem, the Malawi leader said the cost of treating lead-related illnesses alone in Malawi is close to a whopping $1 billion every year, an equivalent of 5 percent of Malawi’s total national output or wealth as measured by gross domestic product.
“So, within my first year in office, we committed the resources of the Malawi Bureau of Standards to collaborate with the Lead Exposure Elimination Project in providing stronger enforcement of lead paint regulations, including better testing facilities to detect lead in products,” he said.
Such a measure alone, Chakwera said, resulted in the reduction of the market share of brands with lead paint by 50 percent within two years and secured the commitment of two-thirds of all manufacturers to go lead-free.
“Malawi is committed to joining the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future in order to have access to the necessary international support to achieve such important benchmarks as identifying all key sources of lead exposure in Malawi,” he said.
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Speaking at the same event, American First Lady Jill Biden, who is a longtime educator herself, described the consequences of lead poisoning as “pervasive”.
She was quick to say it was a problem that “we can solve together in the world”.
She revealed that about $150 million had been pumped into the newly-launched partnership to help “jump-start” efforts in ending lead poisoning in children and creating a lead-free future for all.
