Lead in Vinyl/Soft-sided Lunchboxes

I am not one to send out mass e-mails with warnings in them, etc....

...however, today I did just that. This isn't so dire, it seems, but it's important. Here's what I sent:

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Fellow parents,

I check things like this out at snopes.com (a great hoax-busting site) before I send them on. This one seems to be legit! If your child has a soft-sided lunchbox, you might want to get it checked out for lead. According to the article, testing is easy:

"How do I test my lunch box?You can test vinyl lunch boxes using a hand-held lead testing kit, available at most hardware stores. Two reliable and easy-to-use brands are PACE's Lead Alert and LeadCheck (also available online at http://www.leadcheck.com/). They cost less than $5 a piece, and come with instructions. Both of these brands will turn a bright pink color when they are rubbed on a surface containing lead. A clear or orange swab means there is not lead."

The news is not all dire, however. From the above link and http://www.hpakids.org/holistic-health/articles/182/1/Lead-in-Lunch-Boxes:

"How dangerous are the lunch boxes with lead?
The levels CEH found in the lunch boxes are not high enough to cause acute lead poisoning during normal use. However, if your child is exposed to lead from other sources, a leaded lunch box would add to their health risk. Because lead has been shown to cause developmental problem in young children at very low levels, CEH believes it is important to eliminate all controllable sources of lead exposure, including lunch boxes. "

Here's the whole story from snopes: http://www.snopes.com/toxins/lunchbox.asp.
At the Center for Environmental Health website: http://www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm.
Do a Google search for [lunch box warning] or [vinyl lunch box lead] to see more information.

Forward as you see fit.

--Dave