Thursday, May 3, 2007

Lead Dangers At Home

I just emailed this letter to every news outlet I could think of in St Louis, and the Today show just for good measure. I just never knew there was so much lead dangers around my home. A simple Google search also made me aware there is a lot of lead found in children's jewelry.


Hello,
My name is -----------. I live a half hour East of Rolla. I am a homeschooling mom of 5 children. I have a health alert news story I'd like you to consider covering.

I was cleaning up our yard today and picked up some cardboard packaging from two garden hoses bought for the fruit and vegetable garden we planted with our kids this Spring. I was getting ready to put the cardboard in the recycling bin when I noticed there was a warning on the back. It caught my eye and I began to read. It stated that this garden hose contained chemicals including lead. I read further, and it said not to drink from this hose and to wash hands after use. I was just stunned. My mouth fell open at the realization of watering our garden, food our children were to eat, with lead! I inspected the packaging and this warning was on the inside and it said nothing on the outside about any warning or that we should not drink from the hose. No one could know this unless opening the hose and reading the inside of the package.

I called Lowe's immediately and talked to a polite manager. He said he had never heard of lead being in them and had no idea they sold lead hoses, but he said he did know they sold hoses that you shouldn't drink from. He told me I could return them with my receipt and buy a hose labeled safe to drink from (they only carry one such brand). I thanked him and asked him to please look into the hoses they were selling to consumers like me. I stated many times that we were growing food to feed our family and I was just so upset that a hose could be labeled a garden hose, but not be safe to drink or handle. Again, there were no warnings on the outside of the package.

I did some brief searching online about lead in hoses and didn't turn up as much as I hoped to. I even went to the EPA website and while they have extensive information about lead dangers and prevention they do not mention hoses as a safety hazard on their website. They talk about soil contaminants such as old paint, but nothing about hoses.

I wanted to bring this to the attention of the media in hopes that other families could be made aware of this danger as well. There is a picture on the hose package that just rubbed the whole situation in even more, it's a picture of three children running through a sprinkler.
Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
----------------

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