Lead poisoning is preventable, yet the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (1) has estimated that in 2017 lead exposure accounted for 1.06 million deaths and 24.4 million years lost to disability and death due to long-term health effects, with the highest burden in developing regions. Of particular concern is the role of lead exposure in the development of intellectual disability in children.
Even though there is wide recognition of the harmful effects of lead and many countries have taken action, exposure to lead, particularly in childhood, remains of key concern to health care providers and public health officials worldwide.
An important source of domestic lead exposure, particularly in children, is paint containing high levels of lead. These paints are still widely available and used in many countries for decorative purposes, although good alternatives without added lead are available.

For more read here https://www.who.int/ipcs/lead_campaign/objectives/en/. #BanLeadPaint #ILPPW2019
@UNEnvironment @WHO @EPA @EPAallnations @ToxicsFree
Follow us on City Radio Albania in " Vakti I parë" në 88.0 MHz ora 08:30-09:30 , Ms. Jonida Hafizi dhe moderatorëve Mr.Andi Begolli dhe Ms. Enxhi Cuku

On 19th of September EDEN centre in frame of GEAR project, Project activity Develop and Publish Call for Proposals for projects of CSOs and organise awarding and implementation of projects by CSOs, organized a training session with CSOs sub grantees of the sub granting program for raising capacities of CSOs in Albania.
There were 6 CSO winner of this sub granting program, which is focused in different cities of Albania. In total were present 13 participants. From each CSOs were present the project director, project coordinator and the financial officer.
The training session took place in the premises of the Europe House in Tirana. The training session was conducted by grant manager Ms. Albana Joxhe and the Financial Officer Ms. Reirta Fero.
The main objective of the training session was to provide to CSOs recommendations on project implementation, procurements, contractual procedures, communication among the contracting party and Contracting Authority, visibility and reporting requirements.
The main expected results of the training session were:
 6 representatives of local Albania CSOs were informed about their project implementation
 Coordinators and financial officers were informed about rules reporting, expenses, bills, etc
 CSOs were given recommendations on how to implement in a good way and in line with EU rules their project proposals
 CSOs understand how they can be flexible in communication, visibility, reporting through them and contracting authority

In general the impression from the sub grantees was welcoming and they were intensively involved in the discussion among each other. Many questions were raised up regarding the language of the documents and the visibility of the activities.
This activity is financial supported by European Commission.

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Over a quarter of the food consumed in Europe contains residues of two or more pesticides, according to the annual report published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). For certain foods the situation is much worse: more than 60% of the popular summer fruits tested (currants, sweet cherries, strawberries and bananas) come with pesticide “cocktails”.

PAN Europe highlights that the absence of a safety assessment for pesticide mixtures present in our food not only fails to address the EU law requirements, but it also puts consumer health at risk in a clear violation of human rights.     

For fourteen years, EU law^[1] requires to address cumulative and synergistic effects of pesticides in safety assessment, yet Regulators continue to carry out safety assessments as if humans were exposed to a single pesticide - which, according to the report, is far from the truth.

The EFSA report, which is based mainly on fruit and vegetable samples collected in 2017 across all EU Member States, reconfirms the worrying results from previous years: just over half (54%) of the food tested was free of detectable pesticide residues, whereas over one in four (27.5 %) contained 2 or more pesticide residues (Fig. 1 and 2). The maximum number of residues in a single sample (peppers) was 30 and a total of 353 pesticides were detected across EU. Two in three (62%) EU fruits and nuts from conventional farming contain pesticides. Higher rates of pesticide mixtures may be found in our summer salads: 70% of the currants and blackberries, and over 60% of cherries, strawberries, lettuce, rocket and bananas were found to have two or more pesticide residues.    

For decades scientists have been raising the alarm that chemical mixtures may magnify the toxic potential of individual chemicals alone, including pesticides, making the safety assessment of “one chemical, one assessment” unfit to guarantee consumers’ safety. Furthermore, persistent and highly toxic pesticides (DDT, hexaclorobenzene) and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that have already been banned, continue to be present in our food (meat particularly) establishing a continuous background exposure level to toxic chemicals.

Consumption of food high in pesticide residues has been linked to reduced fertility rates in women and sperm quality in men. Moreover, some of the pesticides found in EU food have endocrine disrupting properties and should be banned according to EU law^[2]. For example, chlorpyrifos, which is a neurotoxic insecticide shown to affect brain development in children, is one of the pesticides most often found in EU food and most often exceeding the Maximum Residue Limits (400 samples). Boscalid, an endocrine disrupting fungicide according to Commission’s 2016 impact assessment, is in the top 5 pesticides detected. Glyphosate, the active ingredient of Monsanto’s (now Bayer) Roundup, which is classified as a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, was most often detected in lentils (42%), barley (23.5%) and peas (25%), and exceeded the safety limits in honey.   

Angeliki Lysimachou, Science Policy Officer of PAN Europe says “The rate of exposure to pesticide mixtures has increased in the past years and while Regulators are - for over a decade now - promising to develop an assessment protocol for mixtures, consumers have become ‘guinea pigs’. We call upon our Regulators to immediately place an additional safety factor for mixtures and stop pretending that chemical mixtures are safe.”    

Contact PAN Europe, Angeliki Lysimachou, +32 2 318 62 55, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pesticide cocktails in European Food