Don't Eat Lead Bags!

Do you know that heavy feeling you get after eating a giant plate of pasta with plenty of wine and fresh bread on the side?? Yeah, well the feeling is worse if you eat a plateful of lead. Hopefully you already know that anecdotally VS from first hand experience...

Why this tidbit of info now? Oh, because of the big pseudo-scare about reusable plastic shopping bags being tested for lead this last week. I have some good follow-up advice from John Weber, Surfrider's Northeast (US) Regional Manager.

He reminds us that, "lead has been used in plastic for a long time, as a hardener (or a softener I can't remember). But that would not be the case with anything made in the USA. Stuff from China is much more likely to have lead, especially vinyl products." He provides an article from the New York Times on the subject.

Building on that info, John recommends, "If you buy a reusable bag, buy American, don't buy vinyl, buy polypropylene or PET or buy cotton." Here are some recycled-cotton bags, made in USA, from EnviroTote (no affiliation with Surfrider). Sweet!


Johns final advice, is not just for the weekend, it's for everyday: "Oh and don't eat your reusable bag or put it in your mouth."

Sage advice! Pass it on!

Lead in Bags? BPA in Receipts...

Death-spiral in action: The ACC is grasping at any-dang-thing to stop the tidal wave of bag bans sweeping the entire planet (we are having trouble keeping up in order to report them all in this blog). This month's panic du jour brings us the news that [some] reusable shopping bags contain lead. Search deeply and single-mindedly enough and you may find trolls under bridges too. Expect a new study soon proving that reusable bags are now causing a resurgence in ACID RAIN!!! Time to bust out the tin-foil hats to protect ourselves.

Lead in reusable bags, eh? Maybe that's how all of those people unlucky enough to have gone through life in the days before the life-saving single-use plastic shopping bags came along had died...they all got lead-poisoning - or ya think maybe it was old age? Oh, where is a spurious ACC "study" when you reeeeally need it?

Okay...back to reality. Whew - welcome back! This last item is a tad stale, but worth a mention in regards to the current LEAD-IN-BAGS scare... Last November it was reported that cash register receipts not only contain Bisphenol-A (BPA - you know, the sex-change chemical used in plastics to enhance pliability), but are AWASH in them...read about it here, and don't forget to wear your gloves to the grocery store - it's a dangerous place!