to ask the MN detectives to find a paint barcode for me?

[IceBeing]

Our neighbours painted their fence and in passing a bunch of our raspberry plants....and we would like to find out what was in the paint to determine if we can still eat the raspberries.

The paint was 'Tommy Walsh red cedar fence paint' from poundland.

We have asked poundland what is in the paint but they refuse to tell us unless we can tell them the barcode for it. (I do not have faintest idea why this should be the case, but there you have it).

Our neighbours don't have the container anymore and our local poundland shut, so your mission, should you choose to accept, is to find by internet, poundland store or garage contents, the barcode of the above paint....

And yes I know IABU.

When did they buy it? It doesn't appear to be in the current range.

Given that it's so cheap, and it's got so many bad reviews for destroying glass/wood/plastic, I wouldn't risk eating it - it's unlikely to be the safest ingredients if it's available so cheap. It also advises against using it on wooden dining furniture 😕.

urgh....that doesn't sound good....I think they bought it earlier this summer.

So frustrating! Thanks for the info though!

any other thoughts anyone?

No advice but your neighbors are twats (helpful)

Eh? I assume you're not eating the actual raspberries covered in paint?

If you zoom in on the bottle on this page it says "harmless to pets and plants"

www.redwrappings.pressloft.com/product.php?pid=1139156

no - not eating the actual paint...the leaves got painted...but when you expose a plant to chemicals they don't all stay where you put them...

So we would like to know whats in it.

I really don't get why poundland won't just tell us. Surely they can look up the barcodes for their own products?

What sort of stuff are you worried about being in it? I would have thought any risks would be tiny TBH.

Doubt Poundland have a clue on it's contents - although maybe there's a reg that makes them keep records of some kind - doubt it somehow.

Why not tweet Tommy Walsh?

We are mostly worried about lead content. I think the idea that Tommy Walsh might know what is in his endorsed products is even more crazy than the idea that poundland might know

The reason they won't tell you is because every time anything about the paint changes, so does the barcode. Every barcode is unique. To differentiate between shades changes, batches, new recipe etc. So if they were to tell you the ingredients and it turned out that yours was older/newer than the one they looked up, they would then be liable for anything that resulted. Especially since it is a query about safety/toxicity.

I work in a hardware store and we can't even advise on how to wire a plug. The only thing you can do is ring the number on the back of the tin if you still have it but as a general rule fence paint isn't safe to use on anything you are going to eat off of and will often stain light coloured clothing.

Posted too soon, sorry. So I would not eat this year's raspberries tbh. If you can't eat off of it, meaning a table then I wouldn't think you should eat anything sprayed with it either.