Lead in reusable grocery bags???

[crunchy_mommy]

Anyone hear about this???

Forgive me if I sound really really dumb, but would washing the bags with the laundry help remove lead?

How on earth does lead get into a fabric bag???

Is anyone getting rid of their bags or testing them or somehow treating them?

[TheGirls]

Yes, a major grocery store around here recalled a bunch of their cloth bags - the type with pictures on them made of a material somewhere between cloth and plastic and usually sold for something like $1. 

Lead gets in cloth bags because it is an ingredient in pigments, dyes, and paints.  It seems to mostly be a problem in those bags with pictures or logos on them. 

If yours have been recalled, I'd bring them back for an exchange or refund.  We use plain nylon bags with nothing on them and I haven't heard of any problem with that kind of bag.  If I wanted to be really conservative I'd get plain unbleached cotton or canvas bags.  They're relatively inexpensive (I've seen them for $3-4 each online)

[crunchy_mommy]

Well we have like 30 bags from all different places & I haven't heard of any specific local recalls. *sigh* We finally just got enough bags that we don't end up forgetting them etc. and now I may have to get rid of them :( It seems like the ones we have are mostly some kind of cheap thin canvas type material??

[sewaneecook]

I know lead in food and dishes isn't safe, but how unsafe is lead in a bag that will likely not touch food directly?  I, too, have a LOT of the bags and I really don't want to have to rebuild my reusable grocery bag stash!

[doubledutch]

those bags do touch my food directly.  i don't really ever use produce bags.

[crunchy_mommy]

Yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out. Most (80%) of our grocery shopping is produce & we try to avoid those plastic produce bags so the food generally does come in contact with the bags... even if it was just boxes of food, if the box touched the bag & then there was some kind of lead dust on the box then it would get on your hands when cooking/serving food...This whole thing just annoys me. Maybe I should just look up each bag's company & see if they were tested.

[thefreckledmama]

I would assume that even if there were lead in a bag, and it did contact the food, simply washing the food before it was eaten would eliminate any risk.  Since my kids don't chew on the bags, I'm not really concerned, and handwashing before eating can go a long way to preventing any lead from entering their systems.

[nukuspot]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a list of which bags contain lead and which don't?  I have so many that I don't know where to start researching.