Hmmm. Can't use paper because it kills trees. Can't use plastic because it kills birds and ocean animals. Can't use reusables because of lead.

I guess we'll just have to carry our groceries in our bare hands from now on.

Re: "...Publix is asking bag suppliers to find ways to make bags with less lead."

The piece does not identify the suppliers. Bags from both New Seasons and Fred's, which are much less ornate, are Made in China.

Given news stories and recalls over the last 8 - 10 years I would asssume that anything made in China is contaminated with lead.

I'm starting to think China has the largest deposits of lead in the world.

I'm starting to think China has the largest deposits of lead in the world.

Portland City Council beats them, pants down.

Just a note on even more negative effects of government financing of the green fad and influence of manufactured goods from China:

Green jobs in the US take a hit in Fremont CA.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/12/a-bad-news-week-for-agw-proponents/

Despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, Solyndra, a maker of solar panels in the southeast San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont, will close one of its manufacturing plants, lay off 40 permanent and 150 contract workers, delay expansion plans of a new plant largely financed with the government-guaranteed loan and scale back production capacity more than 50 percent. Despite the hype and tax money, Solyndra seems unable to compete with Chinese manufacturers, whose prices are lower. This is the latest bad news for the company touted by Mr. Schwarzenegger and President Barack Obama as one of the green industry’s supposed shining lights. – Editorial, The Orange County Register, 11 November 2010

NYT reporter Michael Grynbaum offers a pertinent piece online today, which includes these two grafs:

"There is no evidence that these bags pose an immediate threat to the public, and none of the bags sold by New York City’s best-known grocery stores have been implicated. But reports from around the country have trickled in recently about reusable bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafe levels of lead. The offending bags were identified at several stores, including some CVS pharmacies; the Rochester-based Wegman’s grocery chain recalled thousands of its bags, made of recycled plastic, in September.

Concerns have proliferated so much that Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, sent a letter on Sunday to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency to investigate the issue."

And these two, too,

"'There’s always something wrong with everything,' said Barry Lebost, standing outside the Trader Joe’s on West 72nd Street with four reusable bags filled with groceries.

But Mr. Lebost, an alternative energy consultant, did not appear fazed by the revelations of lead. He said his home, in Gardiner, N.Y., had been outfitted with a hydroelectric plant that saved the energy equivalent of 200 plastic bags a day. 'It may not be a total solution, but this is a step in the right direction,' he said of the suddenly suspect bags at his feet. 'The fluorescent bulbs we have now, they’re no good because they have mercury in them. You look at it as a transition.'"