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Anyone who collects lunch boxes has frequently come head-on with the fact, or so-called fact, that in 1972 Florida banned the sale of steel lunch boxes. This fact has been widely accepted, and to my knowledge, never proved or disproved.

The story goes... In 1971-72, a concerned group of parents, mostly mothers, decided that metal lunch boxes could actually be used as weapons in school-yard brawls. Losing sleep over the fact that their son/daughter may be on the receiving end of a Bobby Sherman lunch box assault, these parents got petitions signed, and marched all the way up to the Florida State Legislature, and demanded "safety legislation" be passed.

With all of the danger involved in going to school these days, protecting one's child from the swing of a lunch box seems too ludicrous to even mention. Just today, before writing this article, I saw on the news a Michigan 6 year old boy who shot dead a 6 year old girl who was his classmate. Police were investigating reports that the two youngsters may have had a playground scuffle the previous day. If the parents only knew how good they had it in 1972...

It is said that the Florida Legislature passed this legislation, and soon afterward, other states and Canada followed with similar laws, forever dooming the metal lunch box. It is also said that this law is the reason that lunch box manufacturers discontinued metal lunch boxes in favor of safer, cheaper, less painful plastic.

This chart represents lunch box production from 1972-1987. Plastic, Metal and Vinyl boxes are represented. During this period, approximately 570 different lunch boxes were produced by Aladdin, Thermos and other major lunch box manufacturers. This information was compiled from several sources. For the purpose of this chart, these percentages are probably more reliable. The number of each type of box may vary, but great care has been taken to count all boxes known to exist.

Two facts cannot be overlooked however-- 1) Nothing is known about this Florida legislation, or even if it exists. Any mention of this 1972 law is done in passing dialogue, and never is a foundation laid to confirm the existence of this law. The only facts known or represented in print is the fact of an existence of said law, but corroborating information is never presented. 2) This law was passed in 1972. The major lunch box manufacturers stopped producing lunch boxes in 1986-87. That is 15 years after this law went in effect. From the chart I have provided in this article, you will see that 39% of the lunch boxes produced from 1972-1987 were actually metal, or around 220.

Would it be safe to say that 39% percent of lunch box production was done illegally in this 15 year time span? It is not known how many states adopted the law, but it seems that metal lunch box production was on equal pace with 1950-1971 metal box production.

Of the approximate 470 metal lunch boxes produced from 1950-1987, approximately 220 of them were produced between 1972 and 1987-- the years following the initial Florida legislation. Almost half of all metal lunch boxes ever produced were sold when a supposed law was banning their sale in various states. Metal lunch box production continued on par with plastic boxes from 1972-1987. This is a piece of information that doesn't sit well with the established facts of the lunch box legislation. How can that great a percentage of metal boxes be produced and sold under various laws designed to hinder their sale?

Thermos Co. is again producing metal lunch boxes, with three in 1998 and three more in 1999. If this lunch box legislation did exist, was it overturned? Is Thermos Co. producing and selling lunch kits in states that have this law in effect, serving to break the law? Or did everyone just forget about this law, and a new generation doesn't enforce it?

I have communicated with Scott Bruce, author of 'The Fifties and Sixties Lunch Box' and 'The Official Price Guide to Lunch Box Collectibles'. He said he received word of the 1972 Florida law from an Aladdin representative while researching his book, and had not independently confirmed the existence of the law. Since Scott Bruce authored the first real works on lunch boxes in 1988 and 1989, all subsequent lunch box books recite this same law.

I would strongly urge any serious collector to pick Scott Bruce's books. Although out of print, they can be obtained through various sources, including Barnes & Noble - www.bn.com - (out of print book search).

Metal lunch boxes were also much more expensive to produce than their plastic counterparts. For the price of a single metal thermos with glass filler, Aladdin could probably produce 3 or 4 plastic kits.

The migration to plastic was probably nearing anyway, and probably was as much a factor in the stoppage of metal lunch boxes as any law could have been. This is not to say that plastic quickly killed metal production. From the early plastic boxes in 1972, they stood in the shadow of metal boxes until 1987.

If it was only for profit reasons, metal would have been put to death long before 1987. And if it was strictly for legal reasons imposed by safety legislation, metal boxes would have gone the way of the dinosaur in the early 1970's, and certainly before 1980.

But in the end, cost probably sealed the fate of metal boxes.

At the time of this article, I am actively seeking information from the Florida State Legislature archives. With the help of a friendly archivist, I hope I can shed some light on this law that has eluded the fact books. As this is an active investigation, some information may change. Any new information will be found in a link in this article.

I hope I can get to the truth behind this law, for myself, and for all the lunch box collectors. Like robots, we've been repeating this law over and over, without documented proof a law even exists. I hope I can provide that proof, one way or another.

I would be interested to hear from any lunch box collectors in Florida, specifically the Miami area. Please e-mail me. I have a few questions I would like to ask you.

Comments or Suggestions?