AS MARKETS start selling Christmas lights and decors for early holiday shopping, toxic watchdog groups are sounding the alarm against Christmas lights and decors that do not pass the quality and safety standard regulations.
It is public knowledge that some sellers peddle Christmas lights and decorations and other holiday products that have no proper labelling, no Philippine Standard (PS) mark or Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) sticker indicating that the products are safe and of good quality.
The public should be vigilant. The sale of improperly labelled and/or unregistered holiday decorations can be a potential source of toxic chemical exposure such as lead and cadmium that may cause unreasonable risk to public health.
We call the attention of our regulatory agencies to conduct post-marketing surveillance in public markets and confiscate products that do not comply with safety and health regulations.
In recent years, toxic watchdog groups discovered that some holiday lights contained high levels of lead and cadmium ranging from 25,500 parts per million (ppm) to 224,000 ppm, way above the 1,000 parts per million (ppm) limit for lead. The lights also had cadmium ranging from 265 ppm to 506 ppm which was above the 100 ppm limit for cadmium under the European Union Directive on Restriction of Hazardous Substances.
Lead exposure can have serious consequences for the health of children. At high levels of exposure to lead the brain and central nervous system can be severely damaged causing coma, convulsions and even death, while cadmium exerts toxic effects on the kidneys as well as the skeletal and respiratory systems. It is classified as a human carcinogen.
Consumers themselves can and should conduct market monitoring to raise awareness against toxic chemicals products to protect the community against hazards to health and safety.
