I'm sure you've at least seen the headlines regarding lead in reusable bags. I sat down today to blog about that, but I've sort of changed my mind. What I want to share first is the history of CCF, the Center for Consumer Freedom, the group that released these test results.
According to Wikipedia:
CCF was set up in 1995 by Richard Berman, executive director of the public affairs firm Berman and Company, with $600,000 from the Philip Morris tobacco company. Berman told The Washington Post that CCF is now funded by a coalition of restaurant and food companies as well as some individuals;[2] according to the group's website it is supported by over 100 companies and thousands of individual consumers.[1] Sponsors are reported to include Brinker International, RTM Restaurant Group (the owner of Arby's), Tyson Foods, HMSHost Corp, and Wendy's.
I'll let you read the rest of the Wikipedia article about this company. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with them at all. Anyone that thinks that Mercury and HFCS at any level are perfectly fine, well, they're just not worthy of my time. I'm not saying they're test results should be ignore, but let's just say that they are anti-environmentalists and aren't very supportive of the whole reusable bags movement anyway.
So, on to the bags. Yes, cheap reusable bags probably contain lead. What doesn't these days?! It's really no surprise honestly. It ranks right up there with the bacteria in reusable bags due to not washing them regularly. You have to be smart about what you're using. Should we have to worry about this kind of stuff (lead, not bacteria), no, but it's life.
How can you avoid the lead? Buy higher quality CLOTH bags. Wash them. We all know by now that anything plastic-y has the potential for lead. That includes our shopping bags. If you do have one of the bags that contains lead, discard the plastic bottom piece, in most cases, that was the source of the lead, and you'll be fine. For the rest of the bags that contained lead, replace them with quality bags from Reuseit.com, they carry quite an assortment of bags, none of which contain lead. For more information on the lead containing bags, see this pdf at CCF.