A San Francisco judge sent a $10 million message Tuesday to a Los Angeles company that repeatedly ignored warnings to reduce the amount of lead in its lunchbox products, two of which were found at a Hillsborough elementary school.

Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer fined T-A Creations Inc. for violations of state laws on toxic substances. The fine was issued as a "default judgment," since the company failed to appear for the hearing.

"We are shocked that a company would knowingly sell lead-tainted lunchboxes intended for California's children," said Michael Green, executive director of the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health, which filed the lawsuit leading to Tuesday's decision.

"The judgment sends a strong signal that companies who put our children's health at risk will pay the price," Green said.

Before issuing his decision, the judge had twice postponed ruling on the case, as no company representative appeared at either hearing, noted Charles Margulis, a spokesman for the environmental group.

The environmental group first notified T-A Creations in April 2006 that it found excessive lead levels in some of the vinyl lunchboxes produced by the firm's Chinese manufacturers.

Two of the lead-tainted lunchboxes were found at a Hillsborough school during a "lead testing day" sponsored by the Center for Environmental Health. The lunchboxes had been given out during a summer camp on the Peninsula.

Margulis said the company was unresponsive to the April warning and the center filed a lawsuit in July 2006.

A receptionist at T-A Creations on Thursday said no one at the company was available to comment on the court order.

State law divides the court-ordered penalty between the state and the party issuing the lawsuit. By that formula, the Center for Environmental Health is awarded $2.5 million, and $7.5 million goes to a state environmental research and enforcement fund. The center is also to receive $71,500 in legal fees and costs.

A spokesman for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, however, said that penalties assessed in default judgments are often hard to collect.

"This is an unusually large fine for a Proposition 65 violation," said Sam Delson, with the health hazard assessment office, referring to a proposition passed by voters in 1986 also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act. "But it remains to be seen if it will be collected."

The judge's order also prohibits T-A Creations from "offering soft food and beverage containers, including lunchboxes, lunchbags and coolers, for sale in California without providing clear and reasonable warnings of carcinogenic and reproductive harm caused by lead and lead compounds."

Lead, which is used in the manufacture of vinyl, can cause severe health damage even at low levels, especially in the brain and central nervous system. Children are particularly vulnerable to its effects, which can lead to lasting learning and behavioral problems, as well as hearing loss.

A 2006 U.S. Food and Drug Administration letter warning against the use of lead in lunchboxes noted that the heavy metal can migrate from the vinyl lining to food. Children are also exposed to lead from lunchboxes by chewing on the malleable totes or from hand-to-mouth exposure.

In the spring of 2006, the Center for Environmental Health was also in the thick of legal action with other lunchbox manufacturers, of which 20 were ultimately named as defendants for producing vinyl lunchboxes with unsafe lead levels.

Between 15 percent and 20 percent of the lunchboxes produced by the 20 manufacturers contained excessive lead levels, Margulis said.

But 19 of the companies reached a settlement with the center, with all agreeing to reduce lead levels in the lunchbox linings to no more than 200 parts per million. The exteriors may contain no more than 600 parts per million.

Margulis said one company, Miami-based Ingear, agreed to eliminate lead entirely from its lunchbox linings. T-A Creations was the only firm that didn't reach a settlement, or otherwise respond to the center's notifications and lawsuit, Margulis said.

Since the center's legal actions, lead concentrations have sharply fallen in vinyl lunchboxes, Margulis said.

Recent testing by the center, he noted, found that two in 100 lunchboxes exceeded state limits.

In addition, the California Department of Public Health in January developed guidelines for preventing the purchase of promotional products containing lead. The guidelines are found on the agency's Web site at www.cdph.ca.gov.

The agency purchased 300,000 vinyl lunchboxes from T-A Creations for a 2007 health promotion campaign, and had to issue an embarrassing recall of 56,000 of the lunchboxes after some were found to contain high levels of excess lead.