[OKC] From NY Times: Bacteria dens? Lead seepage? The travails of the reusable shopping bag.

[Miles, Karen]

Even Reusable Bags Carry Environmental Risk


By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/michael_m_
grynbaum/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

They dangle from the arms of many New Yorkers, a nearly ubiquitous
emblem of empathy with the environment: synthetic, reusable grocery
bags, another must-have accessory for the socially conscious. 
But the bags, hot items at upscale markets, may be on the verge of a
glacier-size public relations problem: similar bags outside the city
have been found to contain lead. 
"They say plastic bags are bad; now they say these are bad. What's
worse?" asked Jen Bluestein, who was walking out of Trader Joe's on the
Upper West Side with a reusable bag under her arm on Sunday. 
"Green is a trend and people go with trends," Ms. Bluestein said.
"People get them as fashion statements and they have, like, 50 of them.
I don't think people know the real facts." 
There is no evidence that these bags pose an immediate threat to the
public, and none of the bags sold by New York City's best-known grocery
stores have been implicated. But reports from around the country have
trickled in recently about reusable bags, mostly made in China, that
contained potentially unsafe levels of lead. The offending bags were
identified at several stores, including some CVS pharmacies; the
Rochester-based Wegman's grocery chain recalled thousands of its bags,
made of recycled plastic, in September. 
Concerns have proliferated so much that Senator Charles E. Schumer, a
New York Democrat, sent a letter on Sunday to the Food and Drug
Administration, urging the agency to investigate the issue. 
Reusable bags have maintained their popularity even amid charges that
they become hothouses for bacteria
<http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/the-downside-of-reusab
le-grocery-bags/> . The recent studies, none of which were conducted by
the government, found that the lead in some bags would pose a long-term
risk of seeping into groundwater after disposal; over time, however,
paint from the bag could flake off and come into contact with food. 
Article continues at: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/nyregion/15bags.html?hp=&pagewanted=pr
int
 
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