PEMBROKE, ONTARIO: Despite action to protect American consumers from health hazards of leaded candles, Canada continues to resist calls to restrict their import and sale.
On February 13, US federal regulators voted to ban all candles imported into the United States that contain lead in their wicks. Some candles, especially those imported from China or Taiwan, contain dangerously high amounts of lead. The lead is found in the core wick, a metal piece inserted into the candles to support the wick as it is being burned. Votives, pillars and tea lights, candles that produce puddles of wax, are more likely to contain a lead core than other types.
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The voluntary approach hasn't protected Canadian consumers. In 1996 the US response banned lead-containing mini blinds after widespread concerns were raised about their safety. Health Canada issued warning stickers. |
Testing done in the U.S. found that burning a candle with a lead core wick for four hours per day for 15-30 days could result in high blood lead levels for children. Lead is a serious poison that has been linked with behavioural and learning problems in children.
Kelly O'Grady heads a citizens group called Lead Environmental Awareness and Detection (LEAD). She feels Health Canada should also be working to institute a ban on lead-containing candles. So far Health Canada has issued an advisory but has no plans to initiate a ban.
O'Grady feels it is ironic that five years ago the OECD proposed a ban that would have restricted the import of all lead products such as lead candles from coming from developing countries. This ban never came to fruition, however, because Canada and Australia, two of the world's biggest lead producers, blocked it, proposing instead a voluntary plan whereby the lead industry would keep a database and advise governments on how to prevent consumer exposure.
"Obviously this 'voluntary plan' has worked well to protect industry from any from of regulation, but it certainly hasn't worked to protect the consumer," says O'Grady. "Take for example the mini blind scare that occurred in the spring of 1996, a year after the ban was proposed. A young child in the U.S. was found to have extremely elevated blood lead levels, the result of sucking on mini blinds imported from China. The US response was to ban the import of lead containing mini blinds into their country. Canada's response? Health Canada issued warning stickers."
"Lead containing mini blinds are still sold in this country," she laments. "Canada has no power to block their import. We are pitifully behind the U.S. in protecting the consumer. We have no regulations in place governing how much lead is allowed into children's products: this includes such everyday items as toys, even water bottles. Discount stores are chock full of lead-containing items. Some costume jewelry, the cheap stuff that children are attracted to, for example, contains as much as 100% lead. Any child sucking on jewelry containing lead, as children are prone to do, will get a healthy dose of this brain poison."
Lead Environmental Awareness and Detection (LEAD) is a non-profit organization dedicated to identifying and preventing pediatric neurotoxicity in Canada. LEAD would like to see all children who have been identified as having learning or behavioural difficulties tested for exposure to neurotoxins such as lead, mercury, PCBs, and pesticides such as organophosphates. The organization helps people learn more about toxins that may affect children's learning and behaviour.
For more information about LEAD, visit its website at: www.webhart.net/lead
For additional comments contact: Kelly O'Grady (613) 735-0717
For comments from Health Canada contact: Lead Strategy Coordinator Craig Palmer at (613) 957-0773
Visit Health Canada Advisory re: Jewellery and Candles at: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/archives/warnings/2001/2001_02e.htm
For more background information visit:
"Lead Exposure from Candles" vol. 284 no. 2 (July 12, 2000) of Journal of the American Medical Association at jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n2/full/jlt0712-6.html
Visit the National Candle Association. Available at:
www.candles.org/facts.htm
Posted: February 19, 2001
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