Don't Use That Bag!

After several years of an intensive and annoying campaign to have shoppers switch from "paper or plastic" bags, the environmental nuts are having second thoughts about their endorsement (actually, championing of them) of those reusable grocery bags. Haha it seems "saving the planet" is hard work.

There are now concerns concerns that lead found in the reusable bags could pose environmental or health concerns to consumers. Some U.S. senators are calling for a federal investigation into reusable bags following a series of stories in a Florida newspaper found lead in bags purchased at several big chain supermarkets and at target stores. (Reusable grocery bags make up 10% to 15% of the market in the U.S., and could become as much of 25% if the propaganda campaign to use them is successful).

The big concern is that users might be contaminated by the lead or that the lead in the bags could leak into landfills that could contaminate food products. This latest hysteria follows reports that leaking into the reusable bags from packages of store bought meat and other loosely sealed products has contaminated the bags with various toxic residue that could be spread with reuse.


To me, all this seems a bit over arching. Trace amounts of lead can be found in a huge number of products consumers come into contact with every day. It is a good idea to ban lead in the bags, but is there really a need for the hysteria about every environmental imperfection? Buy definition, nature contains many hazardous chemicals. Arsenic is rampant everywhere, for instance. The trace amounts are really no threat to humans The very thought that someone would worry incessantly about a common, naturally occurring element sums up the Al Gore Sky is falling Green mindset.


I wonder who will profit from this idea that we should throw away the reusable bags and replace them with something else? It surely reflects the low esteem that polticians, the media and the crazy environementalists hold for the Americans people. Can it be that they are right to assume Americans are so enslaved to their silly technology that they have forgotten to think for themselves, forgotten to see the differnce between a minor concern and a real one?

Environmental safety is a good thing, but why do the environmentalists think nature can be bent to the human agenda they set for it? Life is a risky blessing, and there are times when humans should use their efforts on the important environmental issues rather than hysterical trendy ones.

Sigh...Now I am supposed to worry about the same cloth bags people have been using daily for centuries. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!