FOI request reveals unsafe levels of lead found in vinyl lunch boxes

FOI request reveals unsafe levels of lead found in vinyl lunch boxes

In 2005 government scientists tested 60 vinyl lunch boxes. They found that one in five contained levels of lead that medical experts considered unsafe - and several of the lunch boxes were found to have more than 10 times hazardous levels. But that's not what the government told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement saying that they had found "no instances of hazardous levels.'' They refused to release their test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public. That information was not made public until the Associated Press received around 1,500 pages of lab reports, internal e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted a year ago.

How Gov't Decided Lunch Box Lead Levels (The Guardian, 18 February 2007)