Can't Win for Losing

Sometimes it seems you just can’t win for losing.  Those of us who have been using reusable shopping bags are finding that out the hard way.  Seems there’s a wee bit of a problem concerning an excess amount of lead contained in most of these bags supplied by major retailers. When tested for consumer safety by Frontier Global Sciences in Seattle, nearly half of forty-four national chains reusable shopping bags were discovered to have amounts of lead that were over the limit set by most states for retailed packaging. The list of retailers whose bags are weighed down with lead reads like a whose who, with Safeway, Walgreens, and CVS leading the pack. Appears that in the race to appease the environmentalists and legislators by replacing plastic and paper bags with reusable shopping bags this little tidbit was overlooked, or just plain ignored. Most of the bags tested were made from non-woven polypropylene, a material most commonly used in the making of reusable grocery bags. And guess where the majority of this material is generally made, that’s right, China. Oh my, anyone else getting a strong feeling of déjà vu?