Food Containers . . . With Lead!

I found this “plastic food container” in a local 99¢ store. Let me get this straight. The Chinese lend us money to buy stuff they make. But if the phthalates give us cancer how do we repay the loan? Or does the lead just fry our brains so we don’t know any better?

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21 Comments

  1. I’m going to guess we will either have died or be too brain dead to care that America has been assimilated into the “New China”.

  2. My question is: Why does the US allow the selling of dangerous products in the first place? We will probably have to trade them the Washington Monument to help satisfy our debt. All our repositories of culture will belong to someone else. We will not even notice because of the lead effects on our brains.

  3. My question is: Why does the US allow the selling of dangerous products in the first place?

    Presumably because this enriches the super-wealthy minority who control our government.

    This answer pretty much works for any other politics-related questions beginning with “why does” or “why is.” (“Why not” questions can be answered with “Because this would hurt the short-term financial interests of the super-wealthy minority who control our government.”)

    Also: I don’t think the Washington Monument is worth as much as you think it is.

  4. Oh lord just what we need, and I hear the plastic isn’t good for you either. It’s as if it doesn’t matter how you cross the street you’ll get hit by a car no matter what when it comes to these things.

  5. mr_subjunctive,

    Thanks so much…lol…obvious answer. In my quest for monetary stability, I was too busy to remember the greed of politics and big business. We all certainly cooperate.

    I do not doubt that the monetary value of the Washington Monument is the cost of the materials. However, our cultural icons and patents will be the cost of that minority sucking the life out of us. What car company sold out to China and sold all the patents, too?

    Tupperware is not dangerous. It is the safest plastic on earth! Please, do not disillusion me. I love it. LOL Seriously, from independent tests T is safe. Well, I figure it is not safe to die from broken glass severing an artery.

    Superfluous? Of course. I will check the blog. Thanks.

  6. The first time I saw the Prop 65 warning was on a piece of luggage in Florida that I had just bought (and then immediately returned). Since getting to California, I see it everywhere. It’s in Starbucks saying ground coffee is inherently carcinogenic and in Home Depot saying Wood Dust is Known To The State of California to Cause Cancer (not dust from treated wood, just plain ol’ wood).

    As for the lead, it’s been shocking to notice how often lead is in things, something I never noticed until having kids. THEN I saw the warning lable on the charging cable for my laptop that says, essentially, “this stuff is full of poisonous lead and it leaches everywhere. So every time you touch it, make sure you wash your hand, ok?”

    It sure makes it easier not to buy stuff.

  7. Be happy you live in California and these things have to be marked! We who live in less enlightened states have to take our chances.
    I dropped out of the plastic container trap a few years ago and bought a half dozen of the old glass refrigerator containers, circa 1950 or so, at the local flea market. As long as hubby doesn’t drop them, we’re good.
    The sad thing is that too many ordinary people who aren’t plugged into sources of information that could alert them to these dangers are just guinea pigs. Our elected elite don’t seem to be losing sleep over it.

  8. The worst part is that these are sold at the 99c store and the target audience there is not necessarily savvy enough to realize how dangerous these things are.

  9. Don’t blame the Chinese. Blame our culture that wants to have as much stuff as possible at the cheapest prices possible…if we weren’t demanding it, they wouldn’t be making it, and if we’re willing to pay for it, we can find much better products out there, even in the mainstream. Yes, the Chinese economy is a monster. But we feed it.

  10. I’m not surprised by the chemicals in plastic. What I am surprised about is that after all this time of strict labeling laws in California, how is it that other states haven’t followed suit?

  11. I’m with Frances. It’s not China, it’s our own fault we see the walmartization of everything. The Chinese are perfectly capable of producing high quality goods. When we start demanding them and are willing to pay for them, they’ll start making them. Instead we Americans are penny-wise and pound foolish, as they say.

    @Penny Pincher – Try thrift stores if you can get there regularly; that kind of superior stuff goes fast. It’s how I eventually collected my set of vintage Pyroceram Corningware casserole dishes and lids – I told my thrift store junkie Mom what I wanted.

  12. It’s how the Roman Empire went down… On the other hand that prop 65 warning is everywhere in CA, on the doors of most public buildings; government and Hospitals – even cancer wards. I use one to bring my melamine flakes to work every day.

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