 Image: Courtesy of Wegmans |
First it was plastic water bottles and BPA. Now Now trace amounts of lead have been found in those colored reusable bags everyone鈥檚 (finally) carting to grocery stores in lieu of single-use plastics ones. Chuck Schumer, U.S. Senator from New York, earlier this week , the EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to 鈥渋nvestigate and ban鈥 bags with higher-than-acceptable lead counts.
鈥淲hen our families go to the grocery store looking for safe and healthy foods to feed their kids, the last thing they should have to worry about are toxic bags,鈥 Schumer .
How did the green totes become eco-targets? In September, supermarket chain Wegmans, with its more than 70 stores in five east coast states, stopped selling two of its reusable grocery bags after 鈥減reliminary testing on a limited number of bags suggests there may be elevated levels of lead,鈥 in two designs, . The bags contained 799 parts per million鈥攎ore than twice the amount the CPSC currently accepts in children鈥檚 products. According to Schumer, a consumer group alerted Wegmans to the lead issue.
After that, the Tampa Tribune had more than a dozen bags tested from other supermarket chains including Winn-Dixie and Publix. Some had unacceptable lead levels, forcing the grocers to ask suppliers to change their bag formulations, according to the .
So should you ditch the bags and go back to environmentally detrimental, plastic bag ways? Don鈥檛 be concerned about transferring lead from bag to food. Rather, lead could seep into the ground when the bags eventually get chucked. However, if you keep and reuse the bags (and , apparently), you鈥檙e still taking a greener step than using many plastic bags once.
鈥淭he purpose of reusable bags is to limit waste and do a better job protecting our environment,鈥 Schumer said. 鈥淲e need to make sure, however, that any reusable grocery bag sold in the United States doesn鈥檛 do more harm than good.鈥