Six out of 41 disposable plastic utensils tested by the Consumers’ Foundation were found to contain excessive amounts of lead, the foundation said yesterday.
The foundation recently checked 41 recyclable plastic tableware items sold locally — 10 disposable bowls, nine spoons, three drink stirrers and 19 straws — for the heavy metals lead and cadmium.
Levels of cadmium, sometimes found in kidney and liver tissue, were within the acceptable range, the foundation said.
But six items — one spoon, one drink stirrer and four straws — were found to contain lead in excess of the maximum permissible level of 100ppm (parts per million), the foundation said.
Three other items — one spoon, one drink stirrer and one straw — were found to contain close to 100ppm of lead, said Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄), publisher of the foundation’s Consumer Reports Magazine.
The products were not all from small stores, Hsieh said, adding that some were purchased from hypermarkets such as Carrefour and RT-MART.
The two hypermarkets promised to remove the products that tested high for lead, Hsieh said.
Chronic high exposure to lead could harm the skeletal and nervous system and adversely impact brain development in children, said Wu Chia-chen (吳家誠), secretary-general of the foundation and a professor at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Chemistry.
Wu said that yellow and orange utensils were more likely to contain higher than permissible levels of lead because the two colorings have the highest concentrations of lead.
Hsieh called on the public, especially parents, to reduce the use of disposable tableware in the interest of environmental protection and public health.
In response to the foundation’s findings, the Department of Health’s Bureau of Food Safety yesterday urged disposable tableware manufacturers to recall tainted products.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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