Are Toxic Chemicals Joining Your Summer Picnic?

Is the food in your lunch basket healthy?

When you go on a summer picnic your goal is to commune with nature. You find a great quiet spot to sit in a natural environment. You look for a natural setting such as a lake or a park surrounded by birds and a peaceful place. What about the toxins in your picnic basket? Are your lunch basket foods healthy?

Yes, you might be going to a natural setting, but you might be bringing toxins into nature. Could this be true?

Picnic items tested

Researchers recently tested 58 common summer picnic items, which included picnic baskets, coolers, folding chairs, tablecloths and other items, for toxic chemicals. Can you guess what they found?

Yes, they found toxic, disease-causing chemicals in practically every item. A full 96% of the products tested contained – at detectible levels of 40 parts per million or greater – at least one toxin that has been associated with asthma, liver toxicity, cancer, learning disabilities, endocrine disorders and/or birth defects.

These toxic substances included lead, brominated flame retardants, PVC, cadmium, arsenic, organotins, phthalates and many others.

Toxin suppliers

The picnic items tested were purchased from eight of the top ten chain retailers in the U.S. They were:

Target
Walgreens
Walmart
Home Depot
Lowes
CVS
Kroger
Costco

Phthalate exposures

Some of the offenders come in the form of phthalates. These chemicals are blended into the manufacturing process to soften them – such as hoses, vinyl, fabrics and others. A vinyl folding chair, for example, contained 17% phthalates (16% DEHP and 1% DINP) by weight.

The research also found that 40% of the products contained PVC or chlorinated flame-retardants that had chlorine levels over 3500 parts per million.

They also found that many of the goods contained toxic heavy metals. These included 31% containing antimony and 22% containing tin over 100 parts per million. One table cloth contained .25 lbs of lead sewn into each corner.

Certainly there are natural alternatives to these items. These include cotton tablecloths, wicker baskets, stainless steel containers, bamboo placemats and others.