Lead Levels in Solvent-Based Paints from Karachi, Pakistan

Durr-e-Amna Siddiqui measured the lead content of 60 solvent-based paint samples from Karachi, Pakistan. The analysis found 40% of samples exceeded the legal limit of 100 ppm, with a maximum of 97,000 ppm. Data includes breakdowns by paint color and manufacturer type (domestic vs. multinational).

Use Cases

• Assessing regulatory compliance based on reported lead concentration levels.
• Comparing contamination rates between domestic and multinational paint manufacturers.
• Analyzing lead content variation across different paint colors (yellow, red, white).

Strengths

• Dataset contains measurements for 60 distinct paint samples.
• Provides specific statistics, such as 24 samples (40%) exceeding the 100 ppm legal limit.
• Includes detailed breakdowns by color and manufacturer origin with interquartile ranges.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the single-city sampling in Karachi.

Provenance

Source

Durr-e-Amna Siddiqui

Collection Method

Paint samples collected from major markets in Karachi and analyzed using inductively coupled argon plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES).

Geography

Karachi, Pakistan