The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (the Lead Paint Alliance herein) is a voluntary partnership formed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent exposure to lead through promoting the phase-out of paints containing lead. The Lead paint Alliance is guided by an Advisory Council chaired by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and consisting of Government representatives from Colombia, Republic of Moldova, Kenya, Thailand, the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), Health and Environmental Alliance (HEAL), the American Bar Association, Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) the World Coating Council (formerly IPPIC), AkzoNobel and Pacific Paint (Boysen) Philippines (paint companies).

The primary goal of the Lead Paint Alliance is to prevent children’s exposure to paint containing lead and to minimize occupational exposure to lead paint. Its broad objective is to achieve the phase‐out of the manufacture and sale of paints containing lead and to eventually eliminate the risks that such paints pose.

The Lead Paint Alliance has developed a Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint (https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/publication/model-law-and-guidance-regulating-lead-paint), to support countries to enact new laws (or to modify their existing ones) to establish a single regulatory limit on the total lead containing in paint.The Model Law provides suggested provisions that can be adapted to a specific country’s regulatory framework. The Model Law provides three mechanisms to promote compliance with, and enforcement of, the total lead limit: i) third-party testing, ii) declaration of conformity and iii) government inspection. The burden of demonstrating compliance with the law primarily falls paint manufacturers and importers, as they are requested to provide proof of compliance. Lack of in-country laboratory capacity should not be seen as an obstacle to adopting lead paint laws with compliance provisions that promote testing such as those in the Model Law, as the industry can still comply with the law by sending paint samples to laboratories in other countries that are qualified to perform the required testing. Creating a databank of laboratories undertaking lead paint testing will provide information to countries that lack national laboratory capacity and fear that this would be an obstacle to implementing a regulatory limit on total lead content in new paint.
 
It is envisaged that the Databank will list available laboratories in all UN regions, including both developed and developing countries, capable of identifying and quantifying lead in paint samples. It is also envisaged that as countries pass lead paint laws that promote testing lab capacity will follow and, the Databank of laboratory capacity for testing lead paint will grow over time. Once established, the Databank will be accessible online and periodically updated. For each listed laboratory, the Databank will offer publicly available information of interest, such as contact details, number of staff, instrumentation, analytical techniques, costs, etc. Registration in the databank will be voluntary and the listing does not indicate any endorsement or recommendation by UNEP. Inclusion in the Databank is no assurance that the laboratory has met any or all applicable accreditation and proficiency requirements relevant to lead paint testing and users of the Databank are urged to verify laboratories meet necessary requirements.

The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect specific information from laboratories performing lead in paint analysis in order to populate the databank. We therefore kindly ask relevant laboratories to fill out the questionnaire below. For multinational laboratories, inputs and submissions from subsidiaries in different countries are welcome.

On behalf of UNEP and WHO, we thank you very much for your cooperation and look forward to your input. If you have any questions, please contact us at lead-cadmiumchemicals@un.org.