DAVAO CITY – A public health and environment advocacy group launches a children’s book discussing the dangers of toxic lead.
The EcoWaste Coalition launched what they say as the first-ever Filipino children’s book entitled Ang Makulay na Bahay (the Colorful House) during the National Children’s Book Day Fair held at the Ateneo de Manila University today.
The book discusses the lead hazards in a child’s environment and what can be done to avoid exposure to lead.
“This storybook tackles lead poisoning, a serious global public health issue, in a simple and stimulating way from the lens of a typical Filipino family that is unaware of the chemical hazards to children’s health,” said Thony Dizon, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition’s Project Protect.
Dizon said, “the storybook managed to inform how a child can get lead poisoning, particularly by playing with and biting toys that have lead in them, by sucking on their fingers after playing in the dirt or crawling on the floor, or by eating paint chips or soil that contains lead.”
Dizon’s group hopes that the said book will help contribute to the implementation of the government’s Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds, “which among other provisions, prohibits the use of lead in toys and school supplies, and phases out leaded decorative paints by 2016 and leaded industrial paints by 2019.”
He added that they “hope that the book will be widely read at homes and schools to generate public awareness on the need to consciously remove preventable sources of lead exposure in our children’s environment.”
The said book also includes a fact sheet on lead and lead poisoning prevention for the guidance of parents and teachers.
It was written in Filipino by Dr. Luis P. Gatmaitan, a medical doctor and an award-winning author of children’s books, stories and essays, illustrated by graphic artist Gilbert F. Lavides and retold in English by Richard P. Nollen.
