Legal, Ethical and Environmental Issues

Legal, Ethical and Environmental Issues

As a result of increased concern for the safety of different consumer products such as toys or art products from China, it‘s always been an inquiry regarding the potential for exposure to lead in pencils. The main consumer safety concerns with pencils relate to potential toxicity issues. These generally refer to potential exposures to lead in surface coatings, potential allergic responses to latex that may be found in some erasers.

         Lead is a naturally occurring element that is contained in many different raw materials used in many industries to produce many consumer products. Exposure to high levels of lead through various means can have damaging health impacts. Lead content in all consumer products has been under strict regulation for many years by the regulatory authorities of different governments around the world. Generally, these standards are similar from country to country but there are some variations in regulations and content standards around the world.

In the Philippines the governing body on this issue is the Bureau of Product Standards under the Department of Trade and Industry. The BPS itself does not carry out mandatory testing though they do dictate the standards and often the testing protocols and will investigate complaints about a product by consumers or consumer watchdog groups. Failure to produce to BPS standards is a violation of the law, and any product found to be non-compliant is subject to penalties including immediate recall from distribution channels and additional fines. This is in addition to any potential liability issues a company may face if proven that a non-compliant product it markets causes any actual health issues for consumers who purchased that item. 

Within the pencil and other related industries such as toys and art materials in the Philippines, as well as in all other major production regions, industry associations work to establish testing and certification procedures to assist manufacturers in assuring that products they produce meet the government standards related to lead content as well as other potential toxins. Testing is generally performed by independent third parties not under the control of the manufacturers.

Pencils are generally certified with the Philippine Standards Product Certification Mark standards to assure compliance with the law. If pencils bought does not contain certification marks there is some risk that there may be lead or other toxins at levels higher than allowed by law. However, lack of such a mark does not mean the pencils are necessarily unsafe.

Furthermore, as a result an increasing number of industry participants are turning to the use of third-party certification agencies to audit supply chains from the forest through to finished product. Still even such certification regimes have differences in standards and inspection practices, and so there is often confusion over the environmental impact even for well-informed consumers of pencils and other wood products. 

 The conservation of natural resources and the responsible management of renewable resources are at the centre of the concept of sustainable development. Designer’s decisions have an impact on this in three ways through the choice of materials; the energy used throughout the processes; and creating a reduction in the need to consume. Designs have been modified and created because of concerns about the impact humans have on the environment through using both renewable and non-renewable resources. Environmentally friendly products have become a major marketing tool.