Reuseable bags subject of under-the-radar recall

While you were scurrying around town over the holidays trying to figure out what last-minute gifts to get family and friends, some business officials in the great white north were doing some scurrying of their own. Desperate to discover the best way to avoid embarrassment on an issue, inspiration struck: Announce that you're rectifying a mistake on the Friday before Christmas.

And that's just what Sears-Canada did with their recent recall of reusable bags. On Christmas Eve, a busy shopping day when very few people were at work, in front of a television, or searching for recall notices, Sears-Canada announced a voluntary recall of reusable bags they had been selling. The reason: high levels of lead they contained.

Those of us who have been paying attention to the proliferation of reusable bags that look like fabric but are made from plastic weren't terribly surprised: Sears-Canada now joins Winn-Dixie, CVS, Publix, King Kullen and lululemon in issuing recalls on Chinese-made reusable bags that contained unacceptable levels of lead.

The Tampa Tribune recently conducted a study that showed a number of retailers were selling bags that contained more than 100 parts per million of lead - Winn-Dixie had a bag tested at 117 ppm while Publix had one at 194 ppm. The Tribune's results weren't isolated. The Rochesterians Against the Misuse of Pesticides found that Wegmans was selling a bag that had lead at 799 ppm.

These reusable bags are growing more popular as localities around the country either institute taxes on recyclable plastic bags (as officials in Washington, D.C. did), or ban them outright (as officials in San Jose did) in order to discourage their use. Passed with the intention of helping the environment, these laws have had the unintended effect of putting our food into contact with excessive amounts of lead.

They also have the unintended effect of not being particularly good for the environment. Let's leave aside the difficulty of disposing of reusable bags that are high in lead, as will eventually have to be done. Instead, focus on the fact that the carbon footprint of a reusable bag is 28 times higher than that of a regular plastic bag. Or the fact that one poll in San Francisco - where plastic bags are banned - found that 58 percent of shoppers forgot to take reusable totes to the store, necessitating the purchase of new, high-footprint reusable bags.

Then there are the ways researchers suggest avoiding contact with E. coli in these bags: First, wrap meat in a disposable plastic bag before placing it into your reusable bag, thus doubling your bagging.

A University of Arizona study found that 12 percent of reusable bags were found to have E. coli; almost half were found to have coliform bacteria. Because people rarely wash their reusable bags, they act as petri dishes for bacteria.

New data from the Opinion Research Corporation found that 68 percent of Americans have washed their reusable bags only once (at most) in the last year - and many have never washed their bags at all. Washing these bags will eliminate the problem, but then you're once again adding more to the environmental footprint, negating their supposed benefit.

These unintended consequences are what happen when politicians rush to introduce feel-good legislation without fully considering the impact of radically altering consumer behavior. Lawmakers should stay out of the day-to-day shopping lives of their constituents.

J. Justin Wilson is the Senior Research Analyst at the Center for Consumer Freedom, a non-profit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies and consumers to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices. Comments: Wilson@ConsumerFreedom.com