Some children's vinyl lunch boxes contain unsafe levels of lead

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Pail by Comparison

Claim: Some children's vinyl lunch boxes contain unsafe levels of
lead.

Status: Multiple:

Tests have found some children's soft vinyl lunch boxes contain lead:
TRUE.

Children's lunch boxes contain levels of lead unsafe with ordinary
exposu Undetermined.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

A Back to School Warning:

Children's Vinyl Lunch Boxes Can Contain Dangerous Levels of Lead

Oakland, CA - The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced it is
filing lawsuits today against makers and retailers of soft vinyl lunch
boxes that can expose children to harmful levels of lead. The Center
has also notified several other companies of violations under
California's toxics law Proposition 65 (Prop 65) for lunch boxes with
high lead levels. The lawsuits and violation notices against companies
including Toys "R" Us, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Time Warner,
Walgreens, and others involve many lunch boxes featuring beloved
children's characters including Superman, Tweety Bird, Powerpuff Girls,
and Hamtaro. The level of lead in one lunch box, an Angela Anaconda box
made by Targus International, tested at 56,400 parts per million (ppm)
of lead, more than 90 times the 600 ppm legal limit for lead in paint
in children's products.

"Lead exposure should not be on the lunch menu when kids' go back to
school this fall," said Michael Green, CEH Executive Director. "There
is no reason to expose children to any lead from lunch boxes. We are
calling on these companies to recall these products and take action to
eliminate lead from their products in the future."

Initial independent laboratory testing commissioned by CEH has already
found seventeen lunch boxes with high lead levels, and the group's
investigation is ongoing. In addition to the testing on the Angela
Anaconda lunch box, tests on other lunch boxes showed levels of lead
between two and twenty-five times the legal limit for lead paint in
children's products. In most cases, the highest lead levels were found
in the lining of lunch boxes, where lead could come into direct contact
with food. Lead is known to be harmful to children even in minute
amounts, as it can impair brain development and cause other behavioral
and developmental problems. Children may be exposed to lead from lunch
boxes when they eat food that has been stored in them. Handling the
lunchboxes just before eating could also be an exposure risk.

It is not possible to tell by appearance whether a vinyl lunch box may
contain lead, so CEH is advising parents to avoid vinyl lunch boxes
altogether.

"Parents may need to seek out alternatives, since many mass produced
lunch boxes are vinyl or vinyl-lined," said Green. "A reusable cloth
bag would be a good alternative." Parents can find information on how
to test for lead in their children's lunch boxes at home at
www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.

The CEH lawsuits were filed today against lunch box producers Igloo and
InGear, and against retailers Toys "R" Us, Walgreens, Big Lots, and
Ross Stores. Earlier this year, CEH sent notices of Prop 65 violations
to Targus International, DC Comics, Time Warner, Warner Brothers,
Binney & Smith (a division of Hallmark and the makers of Crayola-brand
lunch boxes), Fast Forward LLC, and Holiday Fair Incorporated. Under
Prop 65, companies have sixty days to respond to violation notices,
after which lawsuits can be filed. CEH expects to file more
notifications of lunch boxes that violate Prop 65 in the near future.
Photos of the lunch boxes can be found at www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Test Your Child's Lunch Box

Because it is not possible to tell by appearance whether a vinyl lunch
box may contain lead, CEH is advising parents to avoid buying vinyl
lunch boxes altogether as we cannot guarantee they are lead free. You
can test vinyl lunch boxes you already own using a hand-held lead
testing kit, often available at hardware stores. Two reliable and
easy-to-use brands are PACE's Lead Alert and LeadCheck (also available
online at www.leadcheck.com)

If your child's lunch box tests positive, or you need assistance
obtaining a testing kit please call CEH at (510) 594-9864. We can help
you interpret the results and can use your product as evidence in our
ongoing work get the lead out of our children's lunch boxes.

Commonly Asked Questions:

What products did CEH test?

CEH has only tested soft plastic lunch boxes. We don't know whether
lead may be present in hard plastic or metal boxes at this time. In
most cases the lead is in the plastic lining of the box, although some
also have lead in the exterior plastic. At this time we have not found
any lunch boxes by Disney, Thermos, LL Bean, Hello Kitty or California
Innovations that have lead - however, we have by no means tested all
lunch boxes by any of these makers.

How dangerous are the lunch boxes with lead?

The levels CEH found in the lunch boxes are not high enough to cause
acute lead poisoning during normal use. However, if your child is
exposed to lead from other sources, a leaded lunch box would add to
their health risk. Because lead has been shown to cause developmental
problem in young children at very low levels, CEH believes it is
important to eliminate all controllable sources of lead exposure,
including lunch boxes.

Does my lunch box have lead?

The majority of lunch boxes that CEH tested do not contain lead, so
there is a good chance that your lunch box may be safe. However,
because it is impossible to tell by looking, at this point the only way
to know for sure is to test the lunch box yourself.

How do I test my lunch box?

You can test vinyl lunch boxes using a hand-held lead testing kit,
available at most hardware stores. Two reliable and easy-to-use brands
are PACE's Lead Alert and LeadCheck (also available online at
www.leadcheck.com). They cost less than $5 a piece, and come with
instructions. Both of these brands will turn a bright pink color when
they are rubbed on a surface containing lead. A clear or orange swab
means there is not lead.

What do I do if my lunch box has lead?

If your child's lunch box tests positive, we recommend that you do not
use it any longer. Please send CEH your positive lunch box so that we
can add it to our investigation and notify other parents.

What alternatives are there to vinyl lunch boxes?

CEH does not have enough information at this time to recommend any
brand of soft plastic lunch boxes. Because it is not possible to tell
by appearance whether a box may contain lead, CEH is advising parents
to avoid buying vinyl lunch boxes altogether, and to test their lunch
box if they are concerned it may contain lead. A reusable cloth bag or
paper bag is a good alternative.

Where is the lead from?

CEH believes that the lead is intentionally added to the vinyl (PVC)
plastic as either a stabilizing agent or pigment.

Should my child be tested?

Normal use of positive lunchboxes CEH has tested would not cause acute
lead poisoning. However, if your child is also exposed to other
environmental exposures to lead such as lead paint, the cumulative
effect could be toxic. A blood test is the only definitive way to test
for lead poisoning.

A child with lead poisoning may not look sick, but may experience
stomachache, poor appetite, hyperactivity and headaches. Low level
chronic exposure to lead can cause hearing problems, brain and nerve
damage, stunted growth, digestive problems and reproductive problems
(in adults).

Origins: On 31 August 2005, the Center for Environmental Health, an
Oakland-based environmental group that specializes in identifying
hazardous sources of lead in the environment, announced that testing
they had performed revealed the presence of that element in a variety
of soft vinyl lunchboxes marketed to children. Subsequent to that
discovery, this private non-profit group filed lawsuits against some of
the producers and retailers involved.

The CEHCA says the 27 lunchboxes that produced lead-positive results
when examined with at-home lead detection kits contained anywhere from
double to 90 times the legal limit for lead paint in children's
products. It packed off those 27 containers to an independent
laboratory for more rigorous testing; that study found 17 of the
lunchboxes contained lead in excess of federal safety standards.

Lara Cushing, research director for the CEHCA, said the study revealed
the lead was not contained within the vinyl material itself but rather
was present on the surface of the lunchboxes. "It's not bound up in the
plastic," she said. "It's sloughing off. It can come off on your hand.
It can rub off on your food."

A reporter in Sacramento ran her own test on eight vinyl lunchboxes she
collected; her examination with at-home lead testing kits showed two of
the lunchboxes contained lead. How much lead was not noted.

Officials for the Consumer Product Safety Commission said it was
investigating the CEHCA's findings on lead in lunchboxes. In October
2005, it published a statement on the likelihood of lead found in such
containers presenting a danger to children:
Q: Recent news reports have indicated that there are dangerous levels
of lead in kid's lunch boxes, is this correct?

A: CPSC staff has tested samples of children's lunch boxes for
accessible lead and found no instances of hazardous levels. The staff
tested the inside and outside of each lunch box and the preliminary
results were consistently below one microgram (one millionth of a gram)
of lead. This is an extremely low level of lead and would not present a
health hazard to children.

Q: How can you be sure that children are not being exposed to hazardous
levels of lead in their lunch boxes?

A: One way that children can be exposed to lead is from handling
objects with accessible lead and then placing their hands in their
mouths. Based on the low levels of lead found in our tests, in most
cases, children would have to rub their lunch box and then lick their
hands upwards of 100 times a day, for about 15-30 days, in order for
the lunch box to present a health hazard.

Q: What is CPSC doing to prevent issues like this from coming up in the
future?

A: CPSC staff encourages companies to use alternatives to lead in
products intended for children. CPSC staff also recommends that
manufacturers and importers of vinyl lunch boxes test their products
for accessible lead using the CPSC staff's laboratory test procedure.
Finding and preventing lead hazards in children's products is an
important part of our mission and CPSC has a proven record of working
with companies to recall products that pose a lead hazard to children.
While exposure to lead presents a hazard to all and poses an especial
danger to children, the amounts of the element being uncovered in vinyl
lunchboxes are not sufficient to cause acute lead poisoning. However,
because long-term low-level lead exposure can result in serious harm to
those subjected to it, lead is to be avoided whenever and wherever
possible.

Lead poisoning can reportedly lower intelligence, cause mental
retardation, memory problems, depression, fatigue, hyperactivity,
aggression, hearing loss, liver or kidney damage, osteoporosis, high
blood pressure and anemia. Very high levels can damage the nervous
system, kidneys and major organs and even result in seizures or death.
It can also lead to infertility in men and cause spontaneous abortion
in women. In the final stages of lead poisoning, the victim experiences
convulsions, paralysis, blindness, delusions, and then coma. People can
and have died of lead
poisoning.

In times long past, lead was to be found in numerous everyday items,
including cisterns and aquaducts, pottery, pans, hair dyes, cosmetics,
and medical nostrums. Toy soldiers were cast in it. Port wine was
protected by it. Church roofs were covered with it. The presence of
lead in everyday life has since been considerably reduced and our
bodies are far less riddled with this deadly substance than were those
of our ancestors, but this element will likely always be part of our
surroundings and of us.

The two major sources of lead poisoning in the United States have been
lead-based paint, which was restricted in 1978, and leaded gasoline,
which was phased out in the early 1990s. However, lead is still found
in paint manufactured before 1978, in soil and dust (particularly next
to busy roads or factories), in some imported or handmade pottery and
tableware, and in imported home remedies and cosmetics.

Yet most of the lead we take in comes from our diet. "The average daily
diet probably contains more than 200 micrograms of lead, of which about
10 micrograms gets into the blood, where it is joined by about 5
micrograms of lead from our lungs (depending upon where we live), so
that our daily intake probably comes to about 15 micrograms and the
body can easily rid itself of such an amount," says John Emsley. Lead
finds its way into the food chain because all plants contain some lead,
although not very much.

Because lead is a naturally-occurring element found in the soil, it
does manage to get into things. Care therefore has to be taken by
manufacturers to detect its presence in goods destined for consumer
use. Various lead-laden gewgaws and foodstuffs do arrive on the market,
however, especially among goods produced in other parts of the world
and imported to the U.S. In 2004, California's attorney general sued
dozens of companies that make or sell imported candies containing lead,
and in 2005 the California Department of Health Services urged
consumers to stay away from candy produced in Mexico that contained
tamarind or chili powder after tests found possible lead contamination
in those edibles. In 1994 an outbreak of lead poisoning in Hungary was
traced to the use of that element by an unscrupulous or unknowing
manufacturer as a colorant in paprika.

Barbara "get the lead out" Mikkelson


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The Urban Legend website claims the email circulating the internet
about unsafe lunch boxes, is TRUE.

What happens when you wash them in the washing machine?