Tests Reveal Reusable Grocery Bags Have High Levels of Lead

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Tests Reveal Reusable Grocery Bags Have High Levels of Lead

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit organization, today released

research results that indicate that some major retailers are using reusable

synthetic shopping bags that have excessive lead levels contained in the

material of the bag. 44 companies had their shopping bags analyzed during the

study and 16 of them were found to be distributing or selling reusable bags that

contained more than 100 parts per million of lead. That is considered the safe

level for heavy metals used in packaging.

Some of the culprits using bags with high lead levels were national chain stores

like Walgreens, Safeway, CVS and Bloom. Safeway and CVS had the worst lead level

bags at 672 and 697 ppm, or almost seven times the safe limit. At this time the

only retailer to have recalled bags over 100 ppm is CVS. Wegmans and Sears

Canada have previously recalled shopping bags because of unsafe levels of lead.

A senior Analyst at the CCF, , said that all across the United

States, lawmakers are proposing legislation to tax or ban one use bags. One of

the consequences of this was unintended; consumers are using more reusable bags

that can often have excessive lead levels. Advocates of choices for consumers

believe that customers should be able to access plastic bags that are lead free

or paper bags in order to take home their shopping.

The bags that were tested were made of woven polypropylene and were collected in

December 2010 and then sorted by store brands.