http://www.care2.com/greenliving/healthy-panic-this-water-bottle-is-making-me-sigg.html
Healthy Panic: This Water Bottle is Making Me Sigg
Back when my child was first born, my wife and I went into an ill-advised, hyper-vigilance mode that consisted of removing all manner of PVC from our home, permanently recycling all plastic bottles and containers, and ceremoniously tossing the Teflon cookware. In addition, we stopped buying pesticide-laden foods in favor of organic and local items, and placed a filter on our tap water. Still that was not enough, as concerned friends and intrepid websites alerted us to the dangers of parabens, black mold, inorganic cotton, etc.
We were, by my assessment, wholly proactive and heedful when it came to making our limited domestic environment relatively healthy and free of egregious dangers. However, no matter how hard we tried, we still felt beleaguered and beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil corporate interests (to borrow a phrase from both the Bible and Pulp Fiction). This was made clear to me, after some sort of vexing encounter with a questionable consumer product, my wife responded with dire frustration saying, “No matter what we do, or how cautious we are, we still get duped by corporate greed mongers.” We were, understandably, in a healthy panic.
A few years on, we have relaxed a bit (as stress about these things will kill you well before the parabens and leeching plastic toxins will) and have learned to, in essence, do what we can. One of the feel good things we did was replace all of our plastic water bottles with Sigg aluminum water bottles, which we have been using daily for a few years.
Now comes the news that Swiss company Sigg, the ever-popular aluminum water bottle manufacturer, hadn’t been telling the entire truth about their stylish and fast selling product. It turns out that the key selling point for Sigg bottles (the “fact” that they were bisphenol-A, or BPA, free) was a bit of an overstatement, and they have rectified matters by now manufacturing bottles that were truly BPA free (see link for full explanation). Better late than never–maybe?
Now, I sat on this story for a little over ten days until I was able to gather enough information and give it enough time to hear back from a Sigg bottle representative. While the bottles, formerly made with a liner that had a proprietary liner with trace amounts of BPA (none of which leeches into the water or contents of the bottle, according to Sigg and an independent testing lab) the R&D at Sigg decided to retool their approach and supply consumers (as of August 2008) with a totally BPA free bottle. In addition, according to the email message I received back from Sigg and a press release that went out this past week, Sigg will gladly exchange any previously purchased Sigg bottle for one of their newer, safer, models.
Problem solved.
Well yes, but this revelation sparked a firestorm on the internet, blogs and Twitter accounts with all sorts of curses and expletives being aimed at Sigg. The response was swift, emotional, and indignant, as many of the Sigg faithful relayed their disappointment and outrage. It was received more a betrayal than it was your run-of-the-mill corporate malfeasance or oversight. Upon reading a few dozen blog posts, you got the feeling that people/customers took all of this very personally, as if a confidant or a benefactor suddenly revealed that they were not what they appeared to be. Even with mea culpas published and exchanges offered, there seemingly is a significant breach of trust here as the healthy panic proceeds.
Beyond this particular case, there seems to be a general feeling among watchful consumers that nothing is safe or sacred in the consumer world. Organic spinach shows up in bags tainted with E Coli, peanuts are laden with salmonella, and now the relative safety of our aluminum bottles is seemingly relative. Are we justified in our skepticism? Is this much ado about nothing? Have we become a consumer culture held victim in our healthy (or unhealthy) panic?
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46 comments
add your comment »I personally reach for a glass. This plastic thing really scares me.
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Oh, forgot to mention this... Most people don't know that Fluoride is an actual natural mineral found in the ground.
So if you have a well, it is important to test to make sure that it doesn't run into Fluoride veins; you could very well be taking in more Fluoride from even natural ground-water than is allowed in the municipal supply.
Bottled water of any sort is iffy as it is, but even if it's gotten from a spring or a well, it could also still have fluoride, and that often isn't regulated along with other possible toxins that might appear in it. Even the 'added minerals' it contains could include Fluoride; for some reason they aren't required to say what minerals were included.
Just stuff to consider.
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Referring again to fluoride toothpaste which I brought up in an earlier comment... I read the labels more, and Tom's Natural toothpaste (the one with Fluoride; they have one without fluoride too for those who don't feel the need to rebuild enamel) has a calcium compound in it, and the fluoride source itself IS a calcium compound. I dunno if it'll actually bind to the enamel that way or not, but it's very possible that it's more effective than traditional. So, that's a second possible option for actual effective toothpaste (the other in my previous comment).
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I just want to say I have now tried 3 or 4 so-called "proper" bottles for carrying around my personal water supply daily. Three of the four leaked when turned sideways, and all of them imparted a "funny" taste to the water I fill them with (Culligan R/O filtered water, which tastes just great to me out of their tap). I have not been at all satisfied with any of these bottles. I prefer to re-use a regular-old-16 oz. bottle of purchased drinking water. I refill it for as long as 6-8 weeks and then discard it and buy another one. I find that the slightly heavier plastic ones (such as Dasani) last well, squeeze well, and don't leak. If I lose it somewhere I haven't lost 6 or 7 dollars out of pocket to replace it. Naturally I keep them out of the sun, out of my car, etc. to lessen problems of leaching. I don't taste anything strange in my water using these bottles in this fashion. The same cannot unfortunately be said for all the "permanent" bottles I've bought. Am I wrong to trust my taste buds to determine if the water is being contaminated by chemicals? I hope not. And yes, I do think a lot of companies are taking advantage of us "concerned-with-our-health" folks by touting dubious products as various panaceas.
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I would rather go for glass or ceramic bottle, and that way you can help hundreds or potters make a living. If everybody bought handmade ceramic mugs for their coffee and ceramic bottles for their water, they would also help those struggling potters.
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I reuse my snapple glass bottles for water and my own tea.
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Filter my own as I drink with stainless filter bottle. Try it, you will love this! - cheapwatertogo.com
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"Are we justified in our skepticism? Is this much ado about nothing? Have we become a consumer culture held victim in our healthy (or unhealthy) panic?" Yes, and no. Are we justified in our skepticism? Absolutely. Corporate greed is everywhere, and many companies will cut whatever corners they can to save a nickle, consequences to consumers and the environment be damned. Have we become a victim of our unhealth panic? Is this much ado about nothing? Often the anser is yes. Germs have always existed, and in fact some are beneficial; yet it seems that everything these days comes in "antibacterial". Total overkill. There is no way to protect ourselves and our children from everything bad. It's a matter of degrees. It's about educating yourself and your kids to the danger of strangers, about how to avoid risky situation, about common sense and trying to make the best overall choice. Life is full of risks. All we can do is minimize some of the larger ones and deal with the rest.
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Well you might want to re-think your using aluminum bottles too. Aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's and other toxicities....you're better off getting a stainless-steel bottle. Surgical grade is probably best.
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as you stated, emotions seem to run exceedingly high over things... i think working towards the healthiest lifestyle you can maintain is always best... i have sigg bottles, i appreciate their rectifying the problem in 2008... i am not outraged with the company as they felt the levels were almost nil... i think people can be over reactive - and it's funny, they don't seem to rise to the issues that really need the backing... when i hear about health reports i try to sit back and look into it... we live in a 30-sec society where fads mimic the quick changes of channel surfing... more info is available than ever and people have less patience to take the time and sort through it... thank you for your article...
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