The story of car spraying in Liberia is one passed down through generations. In 2008, Sah Fallah was just a teenager when his father introduced him to the trade. Now 39, Fallah has spent nearly two decades as a technician in the same auto workshop. Today, he is the boss, overseeing three apprentices.
At their outdoor workshop in Waterside--one of Liberia's busiest commercial hubs--the air is thick with the sounds of passing trucks and motorbikes. Men are busy peddling iron and stripping away old newspapers used to mask cars for refinishing. Fallah's eyes remain fixed on his apprentices as they transform a Toyota Corolla from red to black.
For Fallah and his team, this laborious work is a means of survival, earning them between US$300 and US$400 per vehicle. However, the economic reality is harsh. "The work system right now is not good," Fallah explains. "Because we don't have the facility, they see our conditions and won't pay the price." He notes that Lebanese-owned workshops can charge US$800 for the same job, while his customers bargain him down to US$300--an amount that must also cover the cost of paint, putty, and materials.
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To meet deadlines, the men work primarily with their bare hands, rarely using nose masks or gloves. This exposure comes at a physical price. "I can feel pain in my chest every time I do this work," Fallah says, noting that the pain is often accompanied by rapid breathing. Lacking medical guidance, he relies on a personal ritual for relief: "I drink enough water, and also after spraying, buy two cups of milk, drink it."
While Fallah relies on milk and water, scientific data points to a greater danger. Tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with support from the Lead Exposure Elimination Project (LEEP), confirmed that both imported and locally manufactured paints in Liberia contain dangerous levels of lead.
Rafael Ngumbu, Director of Environmental Research and Radiation Standards (ERRS), admits the results were "not encouraging." Tests on the very car sprays used by Fallah and other painters across the country reveal high lead concentrations.
Dr. Philip Z. Ireland, a public health specialist at the John F. Kennedy Medical Health Center, warns that such prolonged exposure affects the respiratory system and can lead to death. "If you are exposed to these paints, it affects the respiratory system," he said. He recommended using a nose mask and hand gloves to reduce exposure to harmful smoke.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the WHO, there is no safe level of lead. Inhalation can cause headaches, seizures, and permanent brain damage, and is particularly catastrophic for pregnant women and children.
Historically found throughout the earth, lead has been used in a variety of products, including gasoline, paint, plumbing pipes, ceramics, solders, batteries, and even cosmetics. Experts say it remains a significant public health concern for children because of persistent lead hazards in the environment. Additionally, inhaling or ingesting lead can cause headaches, stomachaches, seizures, and permanent brain damage, especially in children.
Other sources of lead include mining, smelting, manufacturing, and recycling activities, and lead use in a range of products. Most global lead consumption is for the manufacture of lead-acid batteries for motor vehicles. No level of lead in the body is safer, according to the World Health Organization.
While many countries, including the United States, have established centers to safely recycle lead-acid car batteries, the global supply chain remains flawed. A joint investigation by The Examination and The New York Times has uncovered a public health catastrophe in Nigeria and Togo linked to battery production for some of the world's largest automakers.
Near Lagos, in the town of Ogijo, lead recycling for U.S. companies has created a toxic environment. Blood tests conducted by The New York Times and The Examination on 70 locals and workers found that 70%--seven out of every ten people--had harmful levels of lead in their blood.
"Every worker had been poisoned," the report said. More than half the children tested had levels that could cause lifelong brain damage. The investigation prompted the Nigerian authorities to close the factories.
Another joint investigation by The Examination and the Togolese outlet Truth Reporting documented hazardous lead concentrations in soil and crops near residential areas and schools. These findings--revealing significant contamination linked to battery recycling facilities--prompted Togolese authorities to launch an official investigation into the environmental and public health risks.
Fewer countries in Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, have taken actions to control lead paint. Unlike South Africa, which has a published law, many of these countries only have a regulation or have issued a decree.
In South Africa, the law mandates that the total lead concentration in paints and similar coating materials must not exceed 0.009% (90 ppm). This limit is calculated as total lead metal by weight, based on either the total non-volatile content of the paint or the weight of the dried paint film. Similarly, the lead paint regulation signed last year by the EPA and the National Public Health Institute is to limit lead content in paint to 0.009 (90ppm). "We just completed the regulation. We have not published it yet," said Jerry Toe, the lead on the regulation at the EPA.
In Liberia, paint is sourced from two primary channels: imported products and local manufacturers. Toe says the EPA has maintained close contact with local manufacturers, including Duraplast and Rainbow paint.
Toe, who attended a 2019 workshop in the Ivory Coast organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), explained that the primary directive for participants was to return to their respective countries and establish formal lead paint regulations.
"When we had the regional workshop the issue we had was when it come to law not only in Liberia but in the west African countries to institute a law it means it has to go through the parliament so I remember the lady that conducted the workshop said to us check in your various institutions if there is any law that has something to do with lead you can use that law and craft a regulation and fortunately for Liberia we have section 54 of the Environmental Protection and Management Law of Liberia has lead regulation so based on that we decided to craft the regulation."
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Section 54 states gives the EPA the mandate to: investigate the use of lead in gasoline and paint in Liberia, establish standards and guidelines for acceptable levels of the lead content of gas and paint, take steps to reduce the lead content in gasoline and paint, phase out and/or ban the use of leaded gasoline and leaded paint over three months following the effective date of the Law.
According to him, when he returned, he started the lead paint regulation. Many stakeholders said to him, "You cannot announce lead in paint if the people are not sure that the paint in Liberia contains lead. It has to be tested."
"So I wrote to UNEP and WHO, they said look, we have done this, we tested paint in the Ivory Coast, we tested paint in Nigeria, we tested paint in Sierra Leone, we can't do it in all countries, so the paint in your country may contain lead."
Currently, the EPA lacks the specialized equipment to detect lead in-house, forcing them to rely on LEEP for testing. However, Rafael Ngumbu remains optimistic about the future of oversight. "We have initiated procurement for equipment," he explained. "Within the next two quarters, once funding is secured, we will be tailoring our operations to include this capacity.
