Why are toxic materials used in consumer products?

The Tampa Tribune explains why lead makes it into our consumer products. In particular they tested reusable grocery bags and discovered that the lead content was likely due to shoddy oversight of subcontractors who use it for making pigments look more vibrant.

Besides causing learning disabilities in children, the toxic chemical lead is especially good at making green inks look greener and yellow inks yellower.

That's the most likely reason why recent tests commissioned by The Tampa Tribune found elevated lead levels in elaborately decorated grocery bags sold at Winn-Dixie and Publix, according to executives in the promotional merchandise manufacturing industry...

...Lead shouldn't be in paint, and there are better alternatives. But making a newly popular item like reusable bags sometimes involves a dizzying array of subcontracting and handoffs stretching around the globe. And, too often, someone, somewhere will substitute cheaper, dangerous ingredients, like lead, to support their profit margins...

Read the full artilce at TBO.com

Tests find high levels of lead in reusable bags

Source: CEH,orgTwenty-one reusable bags sold as alternatives to disposable plastic or paper bags had dangerous levels of lead, according to new test results provided to USA TODAY.

The non-woven-polypropylene bags, sold by chains including Safeway, Walgreen's and Bloom, all had lead content above 100 parts per million — the highest level that many states allow in consumer packaging. The tests were conducted by Frontier Global Sciences for the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which plans to release the results Monday. The group tested 71 bags and inserts from 44 retailers and organizations.

Often it was the bags' inserts that contained the high lead levels. The Safeway bag inserts had the highest level of lead — 672 ppm — behind only CVS bags recalled in November. Earlier this month, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) reported finding lead levels 15 times the federal limit for kid's products in Disney-themed Safeway reusable bags.

Read the full article in USA Today

Read the press releasse from the Center for Environmental Health

"Toxic Waste" candy bar found to contain toxic waste

npr.org

Turns out the marketer of some candy bars sold under the Toxic Waste brand wasn't joking.

The Food and Drug Administration says Candy Dynamics of Indianapolis is recalling all flavors of its Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars after way too much lead turned up in some cherry-flavored bars in California.

The company, citing "an abundance of caution," is pulling all flavors of the bars ever produced. Those would be the sour apple, blue raspberry and cherry chew bars. All of them are imported from Pakistan.

The problem was discovered by the Californian Department of Public Health, found 0.24 parts per million of lead in a batch of cherry-flavored bars. The FDA doesn't allow more than 0.1 parts per million because even a little too much lead can cause health problems for little kids, infants and pregnant women...

See Original article by Scott Hensley at NPR.org

See the FDA press release

See the Center for Enviromental Health's Fact Sheet to learn more about lead in candy



Lead found in Disney shopping bags

TAMPA Disney is the latest big-name company to find reusable shopping bags with its name on it may be tainted with lead.

In this case, a consumer advocacy group Center for Environmental Health tested Disney-themed bags sold at Safeway grocery stores, and found some bags had lead levels as much as 17 times above the federal limits for children's products.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission allows 300 parts per million of lead in products marketed to children. In August this year, that level will fall to 100.

Read the rest of the story byRicharl Mullins at The Tampa Tribune

Or read the press release from the Center for Environmental Health

Study shows e-waste likely source for lead in jewelry imports

Why is lead so cheap and available in kids jewelry? This study shows the link between Chinese e-waste recycling and lead contamination in the Chinese manufacturing supply chain.

 Full Article from Science Direct (requires fee)

Abstract

Highly leaded jewelry, often imported from China, remains widely available in the United States. Leaded electronic waste is exported from the United States to several Asian countries where solder is recovered and circuit boards are stripped of parts in small workshops. To assess whether electronic waste is being recycled into the jewelry, lead, tin and copper content of highly leaded jewelry samples were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Sixteen jewelry items previously determined to contain 20–80% lead by weight were analyzed. Samples were digested in nitric acid for analysis of lead and copper, and in aqua regia for analysis of tin. Six samples contained significant amounts of tin, from 20.8% to 29.9% by weight. In addition, copper was a significant minor component of five of these samples (up to 4% by weight). Copper (present at 10–40% by weight in circuit boards) was shown to rapidly move into heated lead–tin solder. The combined lead–tin–copper content of these six items ranges from 93.5% to 100%, suggestive of a solder-based source material. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that recycled circuit board solders are being used to produce some of the heavily leaded imported jewelry sold in the United States. Should this hypothesis be substantiated, it suggests that environmental policies to protect children’s health must address both proper recycling of source materials as well as restrictions of the lead content in consumer goods.

The first post- a child's death

This is not breaking news, nor is this the reason I became interested in the issue of toxins in consumer products. This, however, is the article that truly speaks to the crisis in our manufacturing, retail, and consumer protection system. This should never happen.

Summary

In 2006 a 4 year old boy died after ingesting a heart shaped charm. The charm was part of a bracelet that was a free gift with the purchase of Reebok shoes. The particular charm that the boy swallowed was 99.1% lead. (Other similar charms tested had varying amounts of lead, which reveals inconsitstancy in manufacturing.) After the incident, 300,000 bracelets were recalled by Reebok.

Far from an anomaly, the CDC reports that 34% of children under the age of 6 have been "exposed to items containing lead...(which) include candy, folk and traditional medications, ceramic dinnerware, and metallic toys and trinkets." These products often have been manufactured and sold by reputable companies and are supposed to under the watch of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Why does something like this happen? Most likely it is for the simplest of reasons. Reebok's contracted vendor for this particualr batch of charms likely used the cheapest and most available metal, which, at the moment that lot of charms was being produced, probably happend to be lead.

The story of this child reinforces the idea that as consumers, we need to be knowledgeable, aware, and vigilant and cannot at this time rely on the gate keepers of consumer saftey. We also need to pressure our government, and the companies that we buy product from to address this breakdown supply chain safety.

Full Article

Death of a Child After Ingestion of a Metallic Charm --- Minnesota, 2006 CDC Report