Washington, Aug 5 - Seventy-five percent of paint samples from India, China and Malaysia contained dangerous levels of lead that greatly exceeded safety norms, says a new environmental health study.

Scott Clark, University of Cincinnati (UC) and his team have found that 73 percent of consumer paint brands tested from 12 countries representing nearly half the global population exceeded current US standard of 600 parts per million (ppm) for lead in paint.

'Although lead poisoning of children is widely recognised as a major public health problem, too little attention is being given to correcting the problem in many parts of the world,' said Clark, UC professor of environmental health.

'Meanwhile, thousands of children continue to be poisoned by the metal, setting them up for life-threatening problems later in life. Modern research has shown that children are affected at very low exposure levels and that there is no safe level of exposure,' he said.

Besides, 69 percent of the brands had at least one sample exceeding 10,000 ppm. With the majority of American consumer goods being produced overseas, Clark says that lead paint exposure remains a serious global health threat.

'A global ban on lead-based paint is drastically needed to protect the more than three billion people who may be exposed as well as Americans unintentionally exposed through consumer products exported to the United States,' said Clark.

In September 2006, Clark's team published what is believed to be the first scientific report to show that unregulated Asian countries including India, Malaysia and China produced and sold new consumer paints that greatly exceeded US lead safety levels.