Here’s Some School Supplies That May Contain Dangerous Chemical Elements According The EcoWaste Coalition
ECOWASTE – The environmental watchdog EcoWaste coalition made an announcement for the public to take caution in buying school supplies.
As the opening of this school year (AY 2019-2020) set on June 3, parents and children are expected to rush stores trying to buy school supplies and uniforms, especially if there’s a sale.
Here’s the link for Dep Ed’s official school calendar.
Meanwhile, when buying school supplies like bags, erasers, markers, pencils and other items, parents should look out for dangerous chemical elements.
EcoWaste coalition revealed that some of the items that contain dangerous chemical elements are being sold at very low prices in several markets.
The announcement about the dangerous chemicals was released by he coalition following their primary inspection of the school supplies.
They have discovered that some school supplies held dangerous chemicals. Chemicals such as Cadmium and Lead.
For a cause (promoting awareness) regarding chemical safety, the environmental watchdog bought and collected random products in different kinds.
A lot of these products did not have labels.
It has been collected from street vendors and retail stores around Divisoria and Quiapo, Manila and in Makati City, Pasay and Quezon Cities.
The collected items were: art instruments, bags, water containers, rain gears and assorted school accessories and evene hair clips.
The items were checked for heavy metals using an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) device.
The have tested 87 products in total and 34 were found to contain high levels of Cadmium.
Here’s an actual list of sampled products that contained high contents of hazardous chemicals according to Manila Bulletin:
- An Artex Fine Water Colors (bright yellow cake), 86,000 ppm
- A yellow painted metal water container with Minions design, 65,500 ppm
- A red coated hair clip, 42,600 ppm
- A yellow painted metal water container with Rabbit design, 39,300 ppm
- A yellow coated hair clip, 15,800 ppm
- A backpack with Ultraman design, 12,100 ppm
- An MPC Classique Water Colors (light yellow cake), 4,914 ppm
- A bag tag with a Doraemon design, 3,659 ppm
- A yellow Fairyland crayon, 3,191 ppm
- A bag tag with Superman design, 2,361 ppm
- A backpack with Ben 10 design, 1,908
- A backpack with Hello Kitty design, 1,879 ppm
This is based on an article from Manila Bulletin.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
