Sending your kids off to school to eat their daily lead?

It astounds me in this day and age there are still products regularly handled by children that contain lead at all. One product that contains lead that blows my mind is soft PVC children's lunch boxes... a fact brought to the public's attention when the Center for Environmental Health tested a TARGUS lunchbox featuring "Angela Anaconda" that tested positive for 56,400ppm, 90 times the legal limit of 600 ppm of lead [1] (why should any lead be found?). As it turns out, other lunchboxes containing dangerous levels of lead are made by at least the following... Generation Sports, Frozen/Ingear, Roundhouse, Crayola, American Studio, Igloo, Sanford, Fast Forward, Arizona Jean Company, JC Penny, Lisa Frank, Animations/accessory Network, Holiday Fair, Mischief Makers, Extreme Gear/Romar, Subzero/Global Advantage, Chill, Big Dogs, Childress baby bottle carriers, Innovo, East End Accessories/Worldwide Dreams.

The only reason I am aware of this (and can share it on REALNEO) is I'm on the board of Concerned Citizens Organized Against Lead and one of the founders distributed to our membership an article from Arab News [2] exploring this issue, and naming names. If you have kids, check out their lunchboxes...  and know: "any lead on the surface of the lunchbox lining can be expected to contaminate food. They (FDA) emphasized that even if foods are wrapped in a plastic bag or other covering, contamination can still occur due to lead being transferred from the child’s hands to the food being eaten." In general, I suggest boycotting all products by Targus [3] and all these other criminal manufacturers/distributors... including Crayola, Igloo and JC Penny.

I find it astounding that I am reading the details of this health threat in the only English language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia, rather than the Plain Dealer.  The Plain Dealer had a feature about parents saving money by packing lunch from home [4], but searching Cleveland.com does not show any coverage of the dangers of lead found in many lunchboxes. Journalists in Saudi Arabia are more sophisiticated and thorough... read more about the issue below, or visit Saudi Arabia... then, check and see what brand of lunchbox your kid carries... I believe my older daughter has had a thermos lunchbox for years and thankfully they are not on this list...

Kids’ Vinyl Lunchboxes Could Contain Poisonous Lead Sarah Abdullah, Arab News

JEDDAH, 1 September 2006 — They’re status symbols on schoolyards everywhere. So, what will it be this year? A Scooby-Doo, Superman, or Fulla lunchbox perhaps?” That’s the question all parents are asking as savvy shoppers around the Kingdom gear up to go back to school. But can you imagine that lurking behind the faces of these beloved characters could be a potential killer: Lead?

Lead (rasas) is a soft, metallic element used in products such as paint, window blinds, ceramic, Chinaware and crystal. Trouble has erupted across the globe when some manufacturers in the US began using lead as an additive to polyvinyl chloride as a stabilizer and pigment in the plastic used in children’s vinyl lunchbox liners.

The US Food and Drug Administration recently notified makers of soft vinyl (PVC) lunchboxes and urged them to stop marketing products that cause lead to leak into foods. FDA’s letter to manufacturers states that any lead on the surface of the lunchbox lining can be expected to contaminate food. They emphasized that even if foods are wrapped in a plastic bag or other covering, contamination can still occur due to lead being transferred from the child’s hands to the food being eaten. Last year, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) brought national attention to the issue of lead-tainted children’s lunchboxes when the nonprofit organization sued makers and retailers of lunchboxes for violating California law.

Since then the CEH has released a list of brands that have all tested positive for elevated levels of lead.

FDA’s notice is the first federal action to stop the sale of lead-tainted lunchboxes. “We applaud FDA for taking this decisive action to protect children’s health,” said Michael Green, executive director of CEH. “It is time for strong government action to ensure our kids are safe from lead at lunchtime.”

Lead poisoning has become one of the most common environmental child health problems in the world today affecting three to four million young children — one in six under the age of six in the US alone.

According to Dr. Mona Sowaf, head of Psychiatry at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, lead poisoning is occurring in the Kingdom, as well.

“Recent reports and research studies have shown that lead is prevalent in Saudi Arabia in part due to a practice that every Saudi women practices, the application of eyeliner or kohl. Its use has been blamed for increased cases of blindness and other-lead related illnesses,” she said

“In addition these women also apply it to the eyelids of their newborn babies having an immediate effect on the child’s brain and central nervous system,” she explained. “Children under the age of six are especially vulnerable to lead exposure as studies have also shown that even low levels of lead can result in neurological problems such as reduced IQ, insomnia, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, and in extreme cases seizure, coma, or even death,” she explained.

“If anyone suspects their child might have been exposed to lead they can request laboratory testing at any of the private hospitals which is easy to do and relatively inexpensive.” The important thing is to keep the subject of lead poisoning in mind,” she advised.

Arab News conducted a survey to find out if any of the lead-tainted materials were being sold in Saudi markets.

A trip to Jarir Bookstore proved to be a mixed bag. A majority of Jarir’s stock was Thermos brand lunch bags with hangtags informing consumers that its brand has been tested by the Consumer Product and Safety Commission and had been found to be lead-free.

The problem is that all the lunch bags we inspected were without brand names. As a matter of fact, when Arab News visited other major retailers Geant, Watani, and Toys R Us it was the same story.

There were no brand names just hangtags displaying distributor information for companies such as, Safta and Grupo Jaslin of Spain in addition to New Boy, which has been popular in the Middle East for the past three years. Unfortunately, numerous efforts to contact these distributors for comment surrounding the issue went unacknowledged.

Arab News also spoke to Jarir’s Showroom Manager Abdullah Lardhi who said, “In order to uphold the highest safety standards all Jarir outlets Kingdomwide get their supply from countries such as Germany, the US and UK.”

As Arab News continued its investigation it was found that Jarir was astonishingly marketing a whole line of possible lead-tainted products made by a manufacturer named Targus International.

Targus gained national attention in the US after the Center for Environmental Health tested a lunchbox made by the manufacturer and tested positive for 56,400ppm, 90 times the legal limit of 600 ppm.

Also on the list were Generation Sports, Frozen/Ingear, Roundhouse, Crayola, American Studio, Igloo, Sanford, Fast Forward, Arizona Jean Company, JC Penny, Lisa Frank, Animations/accessory Network, Holiday Fair, Mischief Makers, Extreme Gear/Romar, Subzero/Global Advantage, Chill, Big Dogs, Childress baby bottle carriers, Innovo, East End Accessories/Worldwide Dreams.

It is advisable for people in the Kingdom to shop with caution as lead poisoning could pose serious health hazard.