Ban on metal luch boxes?

[pkbites]

When I was a kid in the '60’s I had an Archie lunch box:

http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/lunchboxes/lblo26.php

Every kid in school had a metal lunch box, with their favorite show or actor on them.

But I read that they were banned because stupid kids were hitting each other over the heads with them:rolleyes:

Was this a federal ban or just a state ban? I know Florida was the first state to do it, but how far did it spread? I don’t remember hearing about this, and I can’t find any good web sites on it, except that which mentions Florida.

[gigi]

I could only find this blurb on familyeducation.com:

A group of concerned moms said kids were causing injury by hitting each other over the head with lunchboxes. They convinced the state of Florida to ban the metal boxes in 1972, and by 1985, the last metal lunchbox in the U.S. rolled off the assembly line.

It seems that maybe it was industry giving up on the metal lunch boxes; no federal law is mentioned.

[Ice_Wolf]

From: http://www.cvn.net/~neatstuf/FAQ.html

In the early 1970s a group of “concerned” mothers in Florida began a campaign against the use of steel in lunchboxes. They argued that kids were hitting each other over the head with them and causing permanent damage. The state of Florida banned the sales of metal lunchboxes in 1972.This ban spread over the next 10 years to many more states and Canada, forcing the box makers to phase out metal boxes and switch to “safer” plastic boxes.

From what I’ve read, I believe even Great Britain had a ban on metal boxes.

[Road_Rash]

Seems odd to me, because hard plastic lunchboxes can leave just as big of knot on your head. Actually bigger, metal bends more.

[Neurotik]

Actually, I think plastic is a bit softer. But given the fact that metal lunchboxes aren’t (weren’t?) very thick, I don’t think it makes much of a difference.

When I was going to school, though, a lot of kids had some pretty thick plastic lunchboxes that were actually kind of like little coolers. Those would really hurt when you got hit on the head with them. Take it from personal experience. But not enough to cause permanent damge, unless you were being severely beaten with it over and over again.

[lno]

Metal lunch boxes are still being made- when new employees go through their orientation with my employer, they’re given a metal lunch box with the company logo and some goodies inside.

I also bought a lunch box from a novelty store that supposedly was from the New York State Department of Health, covered in warnings that syphilis is the enemy, don’t let shame destroy you, etc, etc. However, I doubt the authenticity of it.

[Cartooniverse]

*Originally posted by LNO *
**I also bought a lunch box from a novelty store that supposedly was from the New York State Department of Health, covered in warnings that syphilis is the enemy, don’t let shame destroy you, etc, etc. However, I doubt the authenticity of it. **

** Syphilis is DEAD??? **. Oh. Great. So…if that’s the case, WHAT DO I HAVE???

Cartooniverse

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

I’d say it’s probably a Florida thing. I’ve had kids in the Illinois public school system since 1989 and I’ve never heard of a ban on metal lunch boxes. They have had, at various times, bans on backpacks, baseball caps, cargo pants, and girls’ pocketbooks, but nothing about lunch boxes.

The vast majority of lunch boxes that are on sale at Wal-Mart at back-to-school time are either plastic or those fabric Arctic Coolers anyway.