It’s probably true, but we won’t know if it’s cause for concern until more data are available.
On August 31, the Center for Environmental Health, an environmental watchdog group in California, filed a lawsuit against four retailers and two producers of the soft, colorful lunch boxes. In its testing, 17 of roughly 100 lunch boxes had more than the federal limit for lead, said Lara Cushing, the group’s research director. Lead, which is commonly used to keep plastics from degrading, was found on the surface of the plastic and was picked up by simple swab testing.
As soon as the suit was filed, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that it, too, is looking into the safety of the lunch boxes. “We are taking this very seriously,” said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the independent federal agency, which has the power to recall
products.
But Dr. Michael Shannon, director of the Lead Poisoning Treatment program at Children’s Hospital in Boston said, “It sounds to me like making a mountain out of a molehill. While it’s true that plastics can contain leachable lead, the lining either has to have direct contact with food for
an extended period of time or be eaten. Short of that, I don’t see how it could result in a significant amount of lead exposure.
“While we worry about lead exposure in any child,” he added, “the critical window of exposure is up to 6 years old; and children that young don’t usually carry lunchboxes.”
What parents can do is make sure food is wrapped. Foods with tough skins, like apples, are not permeable to lead, though they should be washed before being eaten.