By Martha Mendoza (AP)
February 19, 2007

In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 vinyl lunch bags, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe, and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels

But that's not what they told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.

That data was not made public until the Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

The documents describe two types of tests. One involves cuttting a chunk of vinyl off the bag, dissolving it and then analyzing how much lead is in the solution; the second test involves swiping the surface of a bag and then determining how much lead has rubbed off.

The results of the first type of test, looking for the lead content of the vinyl, showed that 20 percent of the bags had more than 600 parts per million of lead, the federal safe level for paint and other products. The highest level was 9,600 parts per million, more than 16 times the federal standard.

But the commission did not use those results.

"When it comes to a lunch box, it's carried. The food that you put in the lunch box may have an outer wrapping, a baggie, so there isn't direct exposure. The direct exposure would be if kids were putting their lunch boxes in their mouth, which isn't a common way for children to interact with their lunch box," said commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese.

Thus the commission focused exclusively on how much lead came off the surface of a lunch bag when lab workers swiped them.

For the swipe tests, the results were lower, especially after the researchers changed their testing protocol. After a handful of test, they increased the number of times they swiped each bag, again and again on the same spot, resulting in lower average results.

The test results also show that many lunch bags were tested only on the outside, which is unlikely to be in contact with food. Vallese said this was because children handle their bags from the outside.

As a result of their tests, the commission issued a public statement last year reassuring consumers they had nothing to worry about.

But the results were disconcerting to experts who reviewed them for the AP.

"They found levels that we consider very high," said Alexa Engelman, a researcher at the oakland-based Center for Environmental Health, which has filed a series of legal complaints.

Re. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, "I am concerded that the commission has failed to protect children from an unnecessary hazard they have known about for some time. We should protect our children by banning lead in all children's products."

Although these test results are only now being aired publicly, the commission did provide them to the Food and Drug Administration las summer. The FDA's reaction was different from the commission's. In July, the FDA sent a letter to lunch bag manufacturers warning them that their lead levels might be dangerously high and advising them that the FDA might take action against them.

In response to the FDA warning, Wal-Mart stopped selling lunch bags with vinyl liners, and offered refunds to customers who wanted to return the ones they already had.

"The safety of our customers is always a top priority for Wal-Mart," said store officials in a written statement last summer.

Other manufacturers have reently revamped their manufacturing processes to eliminate lead, or stopped making the lunch bags altogether. Those changes have been prompted in large part by pressure from the Center for Environmental Health and several other non-profit advocacy groups in New York and Washington state that have been testing lunch bags and publicly airing the results for several years.

Lead is a stabilizing agent in vinyl, but there are other chemicals that can be used instead of lead.

Public health experts consider elevated levels of lead in blood a significant health hazard for U.S. children. Studies have repeatedly shown that childhood exposure can lead to learning problems, reduced intelligence, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder.