Vinyl Lunch Boxes Found To Contain Lead
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 09.15.05
I've said it before: anything made of vinyl is bad news. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH), based in Calfornia, announced that is filling lawsuits against retailers of soft vinyl lunch boxes that can expose children to harmful levels of lead. The companies include: Toys “R” Us, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Time Warner, Walgreens, and others. The level of lead in one lunch box, an Angela Anaconda box made by Targus International, tested as having 90 times the limit for lead in paint in children’s products.
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 by going to the CEH web site.
Vinyl products from China, which of course will include most lunch boxes, are more likely to include lead than vinyl made in the USA, which uses a tin instead of a lead based stabilizer additive. Even in Europe they have begun to switch away from lead and to calcium based additives. Not all vinyl is bad news, as you'll see in the TH essay "Look Out Any WIndow". However, because the industry is unwilling to self police on the choice of stabilizer additives, consumers are forced to assume, in the interest of self protection, that non-durable goods contain lead. THis is not so for durable goods.
For me, all vinyl is bad news because it is produced using chlorine, and it releases dioxins throughout its lifetime. Since all plastic is petroleum-based and not biodegradable, I don't advocate its use anywhere.
CEH offers two links to get lead tests to test lunch bags for lead, however they neglected to offer any links where to find the safe, eco-friendly option they suggest -- reusable cloth lunch bags. Did find a site ReusableBags.com that has several lead-free lunch bag options including the cloth lunch bags CEH suggests.