Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

White Lead (Painting) Convention, 1921 (No. 13) - Mali (Ratification: 1960)

Article 7 of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government’s information that the labour statistics services are virtually inoperative and hence there are no reliable statistics for evaluating the effective application of the Convention. The Government adds that there are no plans for statistical records on lead poisoning. The occupational health data currently available at the Health and Medical-Social Directorate of the National Social Welfare Institute record no cases of lead poisoning. In this regard, the Government explains that work with lead in Mali is performed essentially in the informal sector (open air foundries, occasional battery repairers, etc.), which makes regulatory checks practically impossible. In addition, toxicology laboratories are not equipped to detect pigments of lead poisoning impregnation in either the blood or the urine. Finally, the scarcity of such cases means that occupational health physicians carry out no active research on lead poisoning at clinical level, that is, during workers’ periodical medical checks. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to strengthen statistical services in order to ensure collection of the data required in all activity sectors and to transmit, in accordance with Article 7 of the Convention, fuller information on the practical application of the Convention.