Freespirits, Freestylin and Nature

With all of the advocacy for lead free products in the past years who would have begun to think that your child’s lunchbag may be laced with this toxic substance?  I know that I did not even give it a thought this past fall when shopping for school supplies.

Here is an article recently published on CNN that says our wonderful government knew of this problem back in 2005 and was testing the soft vinyl lunchbags.  They found that one in five contained unsafe levels of lead and one in ten had hazardous levels.   http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/18/lunchbox.lead.ap/index.html

  It seems the ‘governments that be’ cannot agree on what is safe and what is not.  In my humble opinon, any level of lead is too much, especially where my children are concerned. 

Lead poisioning affects both adults and children but it is children who are most vulnerable to it.  Even very low levels of lead exposure can cause things such as learning disabilities, behavioral problems,  stunted growth, attention deficit disorders,  kidney damage, lower IQs and hearing impairment.  Children with exposure to high lead levels may fall into a comatose state, be mentally retarded and  may even die from the lead exposure.

 So manufacturers thought to put this into a child’s lunchbag where it is readily accessible to get into their food supply?   Here is a link that shows some of the bags that are tainted, in case you may have one.

http://www.cehca.org/PhotosandFactsheets.htm

That link also lists some alternative companies that are selling lead free bags.  Another great company that I like is www.ecobags.com.  In addition to lunchbags they also have  eco-friendly shopping totes (no more plastic store bags!!!) and a few other items.