HC Deb 27 February 1985 vol 74 cc169-70W
Mr. Andy Stewart

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps Her Majesty's Government have taken to fulfil the recommendation made by the Royal Commission on environmental pollution in 1983 to the effect that the maximum permitted concentration of lead in paint for household use should be progressively reduced to a level comparable to that applied in the United States of America, and that in the meantime all paint containing more lead than this should carry a warning label.

Mr. Waldegrave

Recent research carried out for the Department at the Building Research Establishment has indicated that the removal of lead-based driers from paint has only a marginal effect in lengthening drying times for a few types of paint.

I have placed copies of a summary of the results in the Library, and will also deposit the final report as soon as it is available.

Following discussions with the Government, agreement has been reached with the Paintmakers' Association of Great Britain that from January next year lead will have ceased to be added by member companies to white gloss, primer and undercoat paints—which account for 60 per cent. of solvent-based paint sales—and lead will cease to be added to all coloured gloss paints and varnishes from July 1987, an advance of one year on the Paintmakers' Association's earlier timetable.

Gloss paint with no deliberately added lead would contain only trace elements of lead and would comply with the United States limit of 0.06 per cent. by weight in the dry film. (About one-third of solvent-based paints and varnishes already contain no added lead; emulsion paints, which constitute about 75 per cent. of total decorative sales in the United Kingdom are water-based and have never contained lead additives).

The Paintmakers' Association has also agreed to introduce as soon as practicable an appropriate label to identify paints with no added lead.

I am grateful to the Paintmakers' Association for this initiative. Its members account for 90 per cent. of United Kingdom paint manufacture by volume. The agreement should encourage companies who are not association members, and any importers, to follow the same route and the Government are exploring the possibility of a United Kingdom initiative to seek to amend current EC legislation in this field.