Lunch bags test positive for lead
IN PREPARATION for next month’s school opening, an environmental watch group yesterday cautioned parents against buying lead-tainted lunch bags which could end up making their kids sick.
This was after volunteers of EcoWaste Coalition found high levels of lead in “must-have” school supplies, particularly colorful lunch bags featuring popular cartoon characters bought from stores in Divisoria and Quiapo in Manila.
In tests conducted by the group last week, EcoWaste found lead in 27 out of 35 assorted lunch bags being sold at prices ranging from P30 and P200. One sample contained as much as 3,000 parts per million (ppm) of the toxic metal. The United States limit for lead content in paint and surface coatings stands at 90 ppm.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead can affect almost every organ and system in the body and children, particularly those 6 years old and younger, are most susceptible to its adverse effects.
The US EPA also said that "even very low levels of lead in the blood of children can result in permanent damage to the brain and nervous system, leading to behavior and learning problems, lower IQ (intelligence quotient), and hearing problems, slower growth, anemia and in rare cases, ingestion of lead can cause seizures, coma and even death.”
In a statement, acting Eco- Waste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said: “We are disturbed with the levels of lead found in colorfully designed lunch bags that are mainly made of plastic materials. Lead may rub off the lunch bags and [end up in] the food or hands of a child, causing the child to unknowingly ingest lead.”
“We do not want to frighten parents but we cannot ignore the likelihood of some migration of lead to the food stored in the lunch bag.” she added.
The lunch bags were bought on April 28, May 1 and May 3 in the Divisoria and Quiapo districts. These were then screened for heavy metals using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer. As a result, EcoWaste found lead in 27 of the 35 lunch bags it analyzed.