Just What Baby Needs: Diaper Bags Contaminated With Lead

9 July, 2008 (21:00) | Dangerous Products

A while back it was unsafe levels of lead showing up on kids’ toys manufactured in China. This time it’s diaper bags, and although the source for this story does not mention whether the diaper bags in questions were also manufactured in China, try to think of the last time you picked an item up off the shelf of your local Wal-Mart or K Mart that did not have "Made in China" displayed on it.

The report, from a Boston television station, revealed some very disturbing news about the levels of lead that were found on some diaper bags that the station had tested at a certified lab.

When paint has a lead content above 600 parts per million, it is considered toxic. Of the diaper bags that were tested, one of them had a lead content of 1489 parts per million on the fabric located near the zipper. The outside fabric of this particular bag was in the same range, around 1476 parts per million.

One might suspect that a baby might at some point come into direct contact with a diaper bag, even though it is something that is handled more by the baby’s caregivers. What the lab tests revealed about two other bags was even more disturbing.

Those two bags contained changing pads that also had high levels of lead contamination. One of the changing pads had a level of 1453 parts per million and the other had a level of 2269 parts per million! I don’t think there’s much doubt about the fact that a changing pad is something that will be in direct contact with a baby’s skin. And what infant does not attempt to put anything in their general vicinity into their mouth?

Clearly there are serious problems with the manufacturing process used to make the bags and the testing that should be performed by government consumer protection agencies when these products are being brought into this country. Makes you wonder if anything is ever going to be done about this kind of thing. Is the availability of all these cheap imported products worth risking the health of our children for?