Careful! Your handbag may have dangerous amounts of lead

A recent investigation by a consumer watchdog group, The Center for Environmental Health (CEH), has found that one in four handbags sold in retail stores it visited contained a dangerous amount of lead. According to the consumer group, 43 of the 300 purses tested had lead in the sides of the purses.

Finding lead in handbags is nothing new, but is surprising given that the battle against it has been fought and won with retailers promising to limit lead content in purses. In 2009, the CEH took legal action against retailers for selling handbags and accessories with high lead content based on tests and research. By June 2010, forty retailers agreed to eliminate lead risks by consenting to strict limits on lead in their products and by fall 2010, more than 75 additional retailers had hopped on board. Despite this, recent findings have shown that retailers and labels have to take more steps to ensure handbags are not infested with lead.

The consumer watchdog group stated their fear was that the lead in the purses could rub off the product and enter the body of a woman or her children. Michael Green, the group’s executive director, told ABC News: “Lead is stunningly toxic. We find it really distressing that some of these companies had this problem.”

Read the rest of this article at Greener Ideal.