Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report. It notes that the report contains no information expressly answering the questions raised and recalls that its earlier comments concerned the following points.

Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government’s general statement to the effect that the prohibition provided for by the Convention is generally respected. Since commercial alternatives are available, very little use has been made of the exceptions allowed. The Committee recalls that, under the terms of Article 1 of the Convention, the exceptions to the prohibition of the use of white lead, sulphate of lead and other products containing these pigments are allowed only in the case of railway stations or industrial establishments where the use of white lead, sulphate of lead or products containing these pigments is considered necessary by the competent authorities, after consultation with the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned. The Government is therefore asked to provide more detailed information on the situations in which exceptions to the prohibition of the use of white lead are allowed and to indicate the manner in which employers’ and workers’ organizations are consulted.

Article 7. The Committee notes that the Government has provided no statistics concerning lead poisoning among working painters, as requested in the report form under Article 7 of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to supply statistics on morbidity and mortality due to lead poisoning.