PCB team to discuss lead paint ban

KOLKATA: The chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will visit the city on September 5 to discuss the issue of banning colours with high lead and cadmium content.
Senior environment department officials said that while there was an urgent need to ban such paints, only the Centre can take a call. The department is likely to ask CPCB chairman S P Gautam to take an initiative to ban such colours, which are rampantly used in idol-making and cause severe environmental hazards.They even adversely effect the health of the artisans.
However, with only a few weeks to go for the pujas, a section of officials feel it is too late to hold such a meeting now. The initiative should have been taken much earlier so that authorities could have put the ban in place this year itself, they said.
"A ban is not possible unless manufacturers stop production. Only the Centre can take a decision to announce a ban," said state environment department law officer, Biswajit Mukherjee.