Public warned vs toxic ‘trumpo’

MANILA, Philippines - A consumer watchdog warned the public yesterday against buying trumpo or tops, saying that most of those available on the market contain lead and other poisonous substances. 

Out of the 25 wooden tops tested by the EcoWaste Coalition, 19 were found positive for lead, arsenic and chromium, according to Project Protect coordinator Thony Dizon.

Dizon said the 19 tops were recorded to have 7,193 parts per million of lead, 1,073 ppm of arsenic and 4,593 ppm of chromium.

All the samples were obtained for P15 to P20 each from stores near the Santo Niño Elementary School and the Marikina public market in Marikina City as well as shops behind Doña Josefa Elementary School and the Murphy public market in Quezon City, Dizon said.

According to Dizon, the Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources last December prohibits the use of lead in the production of toys.

The same policy also sets a threshold limit of 90 ppm for lead in paints, which is also the US federal standard for lead in paint and surface coatings.

“Nowadays, there are tops coated with leaded paints and there are tops covered with unleaded paints,” Dizon pointed out.

Dizon said since children and adults “would have no way of distinguishing which ones are lead-safe, it’s safer to simply pick plain trumpo with no coatings and be extra careful when playing with it.”