Chile.
The National Consumer Service (Sernac) denounced the paint company Ceresita to the courts, after detecting, through a study commissioned to the IDIEM laboratory of the University of Chile, that two of its products exceeded the lead concentration established by the regulation.
The analysis detected that the product called synthetic enamel, king yellow color, exceeded 5,000 ppm for lead, while the regulation establishes a maximum of 600 ppm. Likewise, this study found that the expert latex product colonial red color, exceeded the allowed level, yielding 1,441 ppm.
The purpose of the SERNAC complaint is to apply the fines corresponding to the company for not respecting the Consumer Protection Law (LPC) with respect to the right of consumers to receive truthful information, that the products are correctly labeled and safety in consumption, especially the latter right in terms of the use of the product denounced does not put people's health at risk.
In both cases, ceresita also reported on the labels of its containers that the paints were free of lead.
In addition, SERNAC asked the court to withdraw the respective products from the market, as they could represent a risk to the health of consumers.
Given this, the company sent an official statement in which it confirms the preventive withdrawal of its products while carrying out the respective investigation after the announcement which took with surprise:
"The company received with surprise the result of the analysis of two of its products and immediately began a complete investigation to know the reasons that could generate this situation. To this end, it is carrying out parallel studies in a renowned national laboratory, to contrast them with the results of Sernac".
In addition, the statement says "as part of its safety protocols, Ceresita works with suppliers of international prestige and has documents that prove the non-existence of heavy metals in all the raw materials used in the manufacture of its decorative paints. Preventively, the company ordered the withdrawal of both questioned products from the market, a measure that is already being implemented in order to give peace of mind to all its customers."
