Green Living Tips, Toxic Lunch Boxes and Your Children
Hi again, welcome back. I hope you stick around for some great tips from living green on a budget. My goal is to help each of you that have the desire to make a difference but belive it too costly.
Today with school starting soon all over the country I want to talk about lunch boxes. While you may be buying organic foods to pack in your childs lunch box have you considerd what you are placing the food in? Here are some green living tips that are important to the health of your children and to your world.
I was doing some research as I always am, this topic was of great interest to me as my 6 year old starts school in a few days and wants to take her lunch. What I found was alarming.
The cute little vinyl lunch boxes can be deadly to your child. In 2006 a report found alarming amounts of lead in the vinyl lunchboxes. Consider a metal lunch box instead. We think of the dangers of our children at school eating things like undercooked chicken or being prepared in unsafe conditions and decide to send them with a healthy lunch from home. Now we have to consider what to pack that lunch in for their safety.
A report by the Center for Environmental Health found that common soft plastic (PVC) lunchboxes often contain lead. The level of lead in one lunch box, an Angela Anaconda box made by Targus International, tested at more than 90 times the legal limit for lead in paint in children’s products.
The highest levels of lead were found inside the lunch boxes but also on the lid where it becomes very easy to transmit to food and hands. Small amounts of lead can cause reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. Larger doses of lead are scarier yet and can result in death. Buy a hand held lead testing kit which is available at most hardware stores. Ther is yet another concern with the vinyl lunchboxes, even the ones that say lead free. That is they also use DEHP as an additive which is suspected of being a carcinogen and reproductive toxicant.
It might be best to use an alternative and brown paper bags are not the answer as they go into our landfills. Though healthy for your child they are not healthy for the planet. I would suggest that you look into Basura Bags, Rainbow Reed Lunchboxes, canvas lunch bags or a metal lunch box.
Our childrens safety is of the upmost importance to us as parents and while we consider their health let us not forget to be kind to the environment at the same time.
