Trace BPA found in SIGG water bottles

Below is the full article from the Ottawa Citizen. Bottom line, there was BPA in the lining of some of the SIGG bottles. You can check here http://mysigg.com/liner to see if you have the old or the new style (the old ones were manufactured prior to August 2008). If you do, send an email to liners@mysigg.com and request replacement bottles. Apparently they are sending out the shipping lables to send your old ones in and a voucher to get a new one. I sent in an email about my two bottles, we'll see what happens.

As an interesting aside, while they were testing the SIGG bottles they tested a lot of the "no name" metal bottles with liners and found BPA in many of them. More BPA than they found in the SIGG bottles.

News article....

OTTAWA — When the anti-plastics movement gained steam a few years ago, Brandi Nicholauson tossed out all the plastic water bottles in her house and coughed up the extra cash to buy her kids metal bottles.

Today, the Nova Scotia mom is one of thousands of consumers trying to make sense of the latest news. SIGG Switzerland has revealed that until last August, its Swiss-made aluminum reusable bottle, an iconic symbol for the health-conscious consumer and the outdoorsy environmentalist, was lined with an epoxy liner containing trace amounts of bisphenol A, which the federal government considers a toxic substance.

"Never did I expect them to have BPA in a liner. To me, it's pretty obvious that people are buying metal bottles because they're afraid of plastic and the BPA issue," Nicholauson said Tuesday.

"I feel a little bit mislead. That's how I feel. Whoever is making metal bottles out there are definitely benefiting from people being afraid of BPA and plastic."

Welcome to the post-plastic world where consumers are left wondering where remnants of plastic or bisphenol A could be lurking with more companies trying to cash in on the metal craze.
The SIGG aluminum bottle quietly switched to new a "BPA-free EcoCare liner" in August 2008, but broadcast the change last week in a notice posted on the company website.

CEO Steve Wasik reassured customers that all tests of the older model made with a liner containing trace amounts of BPA show no leaching of the toxin. He also explained the timing.
"The primary reason that I am writing this letter today is because I believe that the BPA conversation has changed dramatically in the last 12 months. Last year, the primary concern was that of BPA leaching from bottles. Since that time, the dialogue has evolved such that now some people are concerned about the mere presence of BPA."

In an interview, Wasik also noted that some retailers had been marketing SIGG bottles as BPA-free, so the company wanted to set the record straight about its transition to a BPA-free liner.
"Our goal is to clean up the communications to make sure that the retailer has all the facts, so in turn, the consumer has all the facts so he or she can make an educated decision," said Wasik.
SIGG stopped shipping old inventory made with the old lining on Tuesday. The company is also offering a free exchange to any customer who mails in their old bottle.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods in Canada has pulled all inventory made with the old liner from store shelves. It is also offering a full refund to any customer who returns a SIGG bottle to any of its stores.

Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence and co-author of the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health, said SIGG's "belated move on their part is good," but the company could still suffer permanent brand damage.

"I think SIGG is in some difficulty here, and rightly so. They were knowingly benefitted from consumers trying to avoid BPA plastic bottles and still using BPA themselves. They're really playing with fire with their brand," said Smith.

In April 2008, the federal government labelled Bisphenol A, a hormone disrupter that can cause reproductive damage and lead to prostate and breast cancer in adulthood, as a toxic substance. This paved the way for an imminent ban on polycarbonate plastic baby bottles; unlike other plastics, BPA is a building block of polycarbonate plastic.
By then, retailers in Canada had already begun to pull polycarbonate baby bottles and reusable water bottles from store shelves.

That's when Jeff Cresswell started noticing a flood of metal reusable water bottles in the marketplace.

The co-owner of Klean Kanteen, the original BPA-free reusable stainless steel water bottle, said the latest development with SIGG is a good reminder for consumers to stick with name brands and to conduct research about bottle manufacturers.

"We answer to ourselves. If we're not doing the right thing, I don't sleep at night," said Cresswell of the family-run business based in California.

"At the time, there were already questions about what is exactly in the liners of aluminum bottles. With stainless steel, there is no need for the liner. Instantly, we got rid of the problem."
Laken USA, which manufactures aluminum reusable water bottles, finds itself in a different predicament. Anticipating a flood of questions from customers in the wake of the SIGG revelation, the Montana-based company is drafting an open letter to customers to explain that "Laken should not be lumped in with the denials and inaccuracies of competitor's claims."
Until June 2008, Laken also used a bottle coating with a high-density phenolic epoxy that contained traces of BPA — and "fully disclosed" this fact to retailers and customers, said Greg Garrigues, who also points out the company quarantined old stock at the time and only filled new orders with its new "100 per cent BPA free liner."

SIGG took a different tact.

In 2007, the Environmental Working Group published a guide to BPA-free product that listed SIGG water bottles as containing BPA. After SIGG complained its bottles did not contain plastic liners with bisphenol A, the environmental group removed SIGG from the guide.
In April 2008, SIGG declined to reveal any specifics about its liner, citing proprietary rights with a third-party producer of its liner formula.

The Thomas Stuff is Back

The Thomas stuff arrived two days ago. Finally. We shipped it off in June. Monkey has long since forgotten about it. We may be giving them to the boys for Christmas.

All in all they are fine, the musical caboose doesn't work. Idiots.

I will not give one more cent to the Thomas Corporation

Today we got an email with another Tomas recall in it. Seems more of the cars had lead in them. It was a long letter. You can see it here http://recalls.rc2.com/. Among other things, one of the "gifts" they sent out to appologize for the last recall is now subject to this new recall.

Idiots.

I mean really, people must be getting fired right and left for this. How am I supposed to trust any of the other Thomas items that I have in the house? They can't possibly check all of the toys that they sold over the last many years. Whatever samples they have in stock may not be fully representative of what is out on the market. Goodness knows what is floating around out there.

Thomas Recall Update-They Suck

So we got our "free gift" in the mail today. This is the gift that is supposed to demonstrate to me just how sorry RC2 is that they put my children's lives in danger by going with a sub rate company to produce their toys and then charging me an obscenely high price to buy them. This is supposed to show me just how sorry they are that I had to drag my two children off to the walk in clinic (it takes 4-6 weeks to get an appointment with our family doctor) to get a requisition and then drag them downtown to stick a needle in their tiny little veins to draw blood to check for lead poisoning.

Our free gift is Toad. Toad costs $13 at Scholar's Choice (then I get 10% off since I am a member). The 6 trains that I sent back have a retail value of over $90. This is supposed to make me want to buy my kids more Thomas items?

Not likely.

Jerks.

Where's my Thomas stuff??

So I have finally had enough with this bloody Thomas RC2 recall. I called them and asked where my stuff is. She looked it up and apparently it should be shipping the first week of September.

I asked her about the "free gift" that we are getting as an appology. She said that it shipped on the 10th, so it should be arriving soon. She said that they are sending out engines. Randomly generated so we might just get one that we already have. We are not getting 6 engines to match the number of cars we sent in, we are getting 1 lousy, probably a repeat, engine.

What a rip off!! I pay between $15-35 for these things, thinking that they are of quality. They go to the lowest bidder, cover the trains with lead and sent them in to my home. Then, as an additional kick to the tender bits, they send me crap as an appology.

DPoD June 14th - The Thomas Tragedy

So this morning I checked my work e-mail to find that another Thomas parent found an article regarding a Thomas recall. The article can be found at http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3275264&page=1

Please take a moment to look through your stock. We have currently removed 5 of his trains from circulation and are looking for James' tender (Monkey has been told that he gets a popsicle if he finds it so he's been looking non-stop). We'll get the boys lead tested just to be sure that they haven't ingested the lead since both of them have spent a good deal of time chewing on them.