Should Lunch Boxes Contain Lead?

The most obvious answer should be a resounding NO. Absolutely not! But some soft vinyl lunch boxes were found to contain lead in a federal study last year.

However, according to an AP article:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.That data was not made public until The Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

First of all I thought that the W administration got rid of the Freedom of Information Act altogether, so I'm glad to know it is still in effect. Secondly, whose side is the Consumer Product Safety Commission on anyhow? The consumers or the producers?

The results of the tests found levels of lead in these soft vinyl lunch boxes (as lead is a stabilizing agent in vinyl), but the levels were deemed insignificant, as was the potential transfer from vinyl to food, or to the children carrying the lunch boxes and eating the food.

Since this info originally came out Wal-Mart agreed to stop selling them, and manufacturers worked to eliminate the toxic stuff altogether. But the bottom line is lunch boxes have lunch in them. Lunch goes into our bodies (and the bodies of kids), a place where lead should not go. So lunchboxes shouldn't contain lead, let alone any other toxic substance.

The Center for Environmental Health has a few lead in lunchbox tips and FAQs. And Jasmin over at Worsted Witch has quite a few non-vinyl lunch box alternatives worth checking out, like the Plastic Melamine Bento Box, the Billboard Lunch Sack, Reed Lunch Boxes, and recycled aluminum can lunch boxes.

For further reading on lead in lunch...