FOIA Request Turns Up Records on Hazard Agency Said Didn’t Exist

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In 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said “no instances of hazardous levels” of lead in a test of vinyl lunch boxes, but it refused to release test details. A year ago, theAssociated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the test data. The request finally produced a box of lab reports, e-mails and other records, 1,500 pages in all, that showed the scientists had actually found that one in five lunch boxes contained unsafe amounts of lead, and that several of those were at hazardous levels. (2/19/07)