NEWS: K-Mart Tells Employees To Cover Up Lead Warnings On Halloween Masks

An employee of K-Mart in St Louis, Cathy Warren has announced that store management ordered her to write with a black marker over the top of lead warnings on Halloween Masks and then to stick another black label over the top. News Channel 5 took hidden cameras into the K Mart store and found halloween masks containing the black stickers, which when peeled off revealed the lead warnings. Cathy Warrren was fired by the company over a separate issue and management have denied ordering the label change. A spokesman for K-Marts parent company Sears Holdings, Mr Chris Brathwaite said the warnings were not needed and that each product passed testing. Mr Brathwaite was asked what passed meant and replied that the products "do not have dangerous levels of lead." He refused to admit whether the Halloween Masks did contain lead though.



K-Mart should be banned from retailing and selling to consumers if the are prepared t cover up health warnings in the march for endless profits.

The fact that there was a warning actually on the article to start with is the main point that should not be overlooked. Someone felt there was danger enough to warn and that warning should have been treated with the utmost respect by K mart.

[edit on 22-10-2005 by Mayet]

I work in the textile business. I test these kind of things every day.
In the UK, we test for a 'standard' called EN71. This contains three parts, but the basic one is EN71 part 1. This tests for toxicity of any garments that could possibly have a high level of substances. IE, lead, Mercury, chrome, cesium, nickel, barium, arsenic,antimony.

This law is applied within the EU. I am not sure if it is applied in the US.

If any garment is manufactured for sale, then it has to pass certain regulations. Toxicity being one of them. These masks should have passed any relevant tests before being allowed to be put into production, let alone being sold on the open market.

The fact that the employee was told to black out the details, tells me that they did not have the relevant details on the label. The fact they were in the store, tells me that they did pass the relevant criteria, but the labels did not state that.

Some one messed up big time here, and went for the old method of using a scapegoat.

The warning label wasn't required by law where it was being sold, so there was nothing illegal or unusual about coverving it. I really don't even understand why this is news.

Actually i love little stories like this.

The thing is the label may have not been required, but due to it being there it is a crime to cover it up, misrepresenting the article for one. Once the label is there the shop does not have the right to cover it over and hide it.

Next the story is news because it shows what big business does. it shows the tricks they resort to in the effort to squeeze more money out of the ultimate consumer.

K-Mart is hiding something, covering it up, a conspiracy, albeit a teeny one but a cover up no less. If this is what they do on a small scale to stretch the profits imagine what is done on a large scale.

Some people, including yourself may think its not news, but then again some people out there may be very interested in this article and keep it in mind the next time they go shopping.

The huge Australian news feed it was taken off thought it was big enough to make Australian news, so I'd say there would be some interested people out there.

[edit on 23-10-2005 by Mayet]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
The warning label wasn't required by law where it was being sold

Could you explain why it wasnt needed?
Warning lables are there for a purpose.

My question is (and I asked this in loam's discussion thread on this as well), why in the heck would you make a FACE mask for kiddos or anybody else and use a lead-based product???

Are you trying to screw people up? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
The warning label wasn't required by law where it was being sold, so there was nothing illegal or unusual about coverving it. I really don't even understand why this is news.

HaHa! Good one... Oh boy, I guess health food stores could then start selling bags of potato chips. They just have to black marker the "contains x amount of Trans-Fats" line off the back, and people can buy these chips as a "healthy" alternative...

Originally posted by Bikereddie
Could you explain why it wasnt needed?
Warning lables are there for a purpose.

The warning label is only required in the State of California.

This did not take place in California.

It figures that Fox news (ahem, right wing) reported this story to just bring more of a bad rep to the K Mart brand. Talk about hitting somebody while they're already down. K Mart stores have been closing all over the place while the giant WAL MART (ahmen, bush) gets put in replace of it. And besides, I've noticed K Mart and WAL MART sell the same stuff at times from the same manufacturer, except different labels are put on them. For example, I bought a shower cart for college at K Mart and saw the same exact shower cart at wal mart (same exact color, material, design, except different label.)

Sooo that being said, it's possible that the halloween masks sold at K Mart may as well be sold in Wal Mart stores.

California is well known for having excessive laws when it comes to potential hazards in items sold in that state. I have worked for companies that have had special packaging for items sent to California. We would use one labeling system for the rest of the US and one seperate one for California. In my opinion K-Mart was right in covering the lead warning label for the very reason that makes this artical news.

There is some lead in everything that we eat and drink and it is natural for some lead to be in your body. It is the level of lead that is the issue here. You are not going to absorb the lead in the mask through your skin while wearing the mask. The article even points out that you would have to chew or eat the mask in order for there to be a problem. How many people eat their Halloween masks? From the looks of the mask shown this isn't something that you would give a toddler to wear, it is meant for older children and adults. If this was something edible or something that came in contact with food then I agree 100% that it should either be banned or warnings should be attached. If the label attached to this mask didn't have a warning on it we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

This is just a disgruntled former employee and a television station trying to hype a non-event and taking cheap shots at K-Mart

Originally posted by Valhall
My question is (and I asked this in loam's discussion thread on this as well), why in the heck would you make a FACE mask for kiddos or anybody else and use a lead-based product???

Are you trying to screw people up? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Nope... just greedy... white paint made from lead is much cheaper than white paint made from titanium... (you must remember that china manufacturers don't care)

it is such a small percentage that it is only required to be marked in California... and even then, only marked... not prevented from sale...

K-mart should have just removed the tags, and retagged them... but alas, they are also too cheap, and didn't want to spend a quarter for a tag, for a mask that cost them 75 cents...
so the black majic marker and generic black covertag were used...
whats the big woop?

It is good that this employee reported this, because next time, it may be something much more serious, and better safe than sorry...

Always report tags or markings that have been obviously tampered with...
and if anyone every asks you to "retag' merchandise, be suspicious... this is where many scams hit the consumer...

I.E. New Orleans Cars- they will be for sale soon all over the USA... and they will all be sold as scrap with a "hazardous material" sticker on them...
dont tell me that someone wont try to clean one up, and sell it without the sticker for 10X the money... BE CAREFUL...

[edit on 24-10-2005 by LazarusTheLong]

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong

Originally posted by Valhall
My question is (and I asked this in loam's discussion thread on this as well), why in the heck would you make a FACE mask for kiddos or anybody else and use a lead-based product???

Are you trying to screw people up? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Nope... just greedy... white paint made from lead is much cheaper than white paint made from titanium... (you must remember that china manufacturers don't care)

Actually there is no paint involved, otherwise there would be regulations that would apply.

Lead is a common ingredient of many types of vinyl.

aHHH Sooooo

live and learn...

Signed-
the grasshopper...

If you want to know a little more about lead poisoning here is a link.

Most people do not know what the symptoms are of lead poisoning; hope the link may help.

If the warning label was not required by law, and the product passed the legal minimum health standard, then no problem.

Except that the company didn't immediately call the releveant information to had when questioned.

And, worse, didn't explain why it was no problem to the employees while instructing them to cover the labels up. Had the company enlightened its employees there might possibly have been no controversy to begin with.

This is news because people associated lead with bad. Lead around children with bad and covering up a lead warning on a product for children with really, really bad. Had the company taken the time to explain why none of this applied in this case then they would be on the front foot, not the back foot and Cathy Warren would look like a bunch of sour grapes instead of a heroic whistle-blower.