J. Justin Wilson, senior research analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Consumer Freedom, forwarded the following statement after the Hawaii County Council’s Environmental Management Committee this week approved a bill aimed at reducing the use of plastic grocery bags:
“While Big Island lawmakers consider instituting a ban on plastic bags, you should consider this: Those polypropylene bags that will replace them are likely to bring dangerous bacteria like E. coli in contact with your food.
“According to a new survey from Opinion Research Corporation, more than half of the people who do their grocery shopping with reusable bags have never washed them. This is despite the fact that a recent study from the University of Arizona found that more than half of the bags they tested came up positive for Coliform, while 11 percent tested positive for E. coli.
“And there are dangers in these bags that you can’t just wash out: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called on the Food and Drug Adminstration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Consumer Product Safety Commission to look into the fact that excessive levels of lead have been found in these products.
“What we’re seeing are the unintended consequences of ill-thought-out government regulations. Often, when the government rushes to push through feel-good regulations designed to shape public behavior, they usually introduce new problems. In this case, they might introduce new and potentially dangerous problems.”
For further information, contact Wilson at:
202-463-7112
Wilson@ConsumerFreedom.com
1090 Vermont Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Above “news” item should have been filed in “Opinion” or as “Media Release”. That is not news but a piece to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, & dread). In my opinion, of course.
* About Center for Consumer Freedom …
http://consumerist.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=1&tag=center%20for%20consumer%20freedom&limit=20
“The Center for Consumer Freedom is a lobbying and media group that advocates ‘consumer choice,’ specifically the choice to consume fast foods, alcohol, and tobacco. Originally founded with money from a grant from the Philip Morris company (and launching as the ‘Guest Choice Network’), the Center for Consumer Freedom is currently funded by a long list of food and restaurant companies, including Coco-Cola, Monsanto, Tyson Foods, and Applebees.”
* About the study from the University of Arizona as that by Charles P. Gerba, David Williams and Ryan G. Sinclair …
http://uanews.org/pdfs/GerbaWilliamsSinclair_BagContamination.pdf
… then it was funded by the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that ” advocates on behalf of plastic-bag manufacturers” …
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2010/07/can-reusable-grocery-bags-make-you-sick-or-is-that-just-baloney.html?EXTKEY=I91CONL&CMP=OTC-ConsumeristRSS
* Now, lead found on some reusable bag in paints was real …
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/nov/14/140842/lead-taints-reusable-bags/news-metro/
http://consumerist.com/2010/11/lead-in-reusable-shopping-bags.html
… in short, to avoid lead try to buy the plainest looking bag.
Parv, thanks for doing the homework verifying what I suspected as soon as I read this “news” item. The editors of Hawaii 24/7 should focus on real news, not this misleading, lobbyist-generated crap.
As far as lead is concerned, there are plenty of sources for natural fabric bags that contain no lead. The accumulation of plastic trash is a serious threat to the ocean. This kind of phoney “news” is a serious threat to our efforts to deal with that plastic trash.