Water Bottles and BPA and Me

This weekend, when I was away for my belt test, I was so excited to see a Whole Foods Grocery.  That is SERIOUSLY my favorite store.  I'd love to have one in my area.  In fact, I did a market study on cites with a Whole Foods presence - comparing and contrasting their median incomes, population and growth rates with my city.  I sent it to them two years ago.  Still - nothing.

While I was in there, I saw a display for Sigg water bottles.  I've wanted to get these for a long while now.  See, I'm a bit of a plastic water bottle fanatic.  Ever since The Biggest Loser people sent me water bottles and water filters for a giveaway on The Elff Diet,  I've become obsessed with not using plastic single use bottles.  I use the 32 ounce bottle that they sent me every day, refilling it three times.  My kids each have several water bottles and we always take them wherever we go.  So, I bought a couple, but not nearly enough - those things are really spendy. 

This week, I was stunned to read the newspaper article from the Washington Post, detailing the ban on BPA products.  Reading Blogher today gave me way more information.  Apparently, any water bottles with the #7 on the bottom, as well as #3 and #6, contain BPA, a known carcinogen .  Canada has banned the sale of any water bottles containing this chemical, and Nalgene, maker of the most common reusable water bottle, is moving to recall all of their water bottles.

Did you ever wish that you didn't look into something?

A quick glance in my kitchen showed that 3/4 of the water bottles my kids use are #7.

My beloved green 32 ounce TBL bottle - #7.  3 refills a day.

85% of the drinking glasses in my cabinet, every single one that was purchased from Starbucks - #7.

Crap.

So they all went out in the trash today, and I went to buy new drinking cups.  As I was standing in the aisle at Target, I couldn't help but notice that all of the glasses were emblem free - no triangle of arrows with a number in the middle to indicate the type of plastic.  Are the new ones I bought today any safer?

How much damage have I done to my body and to my family by using cups and bottles containing BPA?

How many bottles with a #7 do you have in your home?

I'm definitely going to order more SIGG bottles.

_________________________

I have an extra 2 day pass to Blogher that I bought at Early Bird price and need to sell.  Anyone interested?

Comments

[jen]

I haven't checked my plastic cups and bottles yet, but I'm 99.99% positive they're all hitting the trash by the end of the week. SIGG bottles are unholy expensive, but that's the price you pay to not poison your family, apparently. Ticks me off to no end that eating (and now drinking) healthily is more expensive than eating crappily.

[Average Jane]

I didn't have to throw away my Nalgene bottle because I happened to misplace it right before I heard about the recall. I have a great Sigg bottle that I keep at work; now I just need to buy a second one for home.

[Anna]

All of our plastic cups/sippies, etc are either 5 or not marked.

[kalisah]

Wow. I've never even heard of this. So...alumninum water bottles? Is that the way to go?

[Stephanie C.]

Oh,yeah, I'm familiar with this. I recently bought the Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles from Amazon. They're fabulous. The water even tastes cleaner--no joke.

[MizFit]

Im late to the party but FINALLY gave up the plastic bottles.

why did it take having a child to make me clean up my act?!

M.

[amy]

The aluminum water bottles I've heard, are the only ones that will ever break down in a landfill. We only use real glasses at home.
I'm still hooked on the water bottles by the case....easy grab and go. Since I'm always on go, usually running late, so it's the bottle that's prefilled or nothing at this point until I figure out a better juggle

[madge]

Any kind of clear, uncolored plastic is typically a #7. I've cleared all #7 and unlabeled plastic out of the house. The thing that kills me is that that includes ALL big name baby bottles(!).

For older kids, the metal bottles seem the best choice. For the little guys, there a still a bunch of options in the #5 range. I use The First Years Take & Toss plastic straw and sippy cups.

My husband thought I was crazy when he saw me throwing everything out, but after reading some of the latest stuff, he's totally on board.

[Karen Sugarpants]

Does this help at all: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/health/22well.html?_r=1&ex=1366516800&en=6d84a5993ddae60c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

I still have my Nalgene until I get time to get a Sigg - another week is not going to make a difference - I've only been using it a month anyway - before that was the disposable bottled water.

[Tina H.]

GREAT TOPIC!! and one that has been on my mind lately.
I just bought a SIGG. What kind of top are you using on yours? My one with braces is having a hard time with the top where you need to push it down with your teeth/lips. I am liking the bottle...but the top??? Is that just something you need to get used to? Or would you recommend a different top?
Keep this topic going...I want to hear more about it.
---So if your bottle/sippy cups do not have a number on it...then toss it?
---I need to look at the number inside the triangle correct? Is that the only place?
---I have heard SIGG and Kleen Kanteen...any other options?
GREAT!!

[Rachel]

Great post. I am the owner of BayingHound.com selling ecofriendly products including SIGG water bottles. I am also the keeper of one 'screaming mass', my daughter Lillian. If any of your readers would like to buy a SIGG and support a work from home mama, please check out my site.

With regards to the top style question, you can use any top on any SIGG bottle. For a child with braces, I would guess that the loop top would be most comfortable - just unscrew and drink from the bottle. (Of course, he/she could just unscrew the top she has and drink from the bottle without buying anything new.)

Re: cost: It is true that SIGGs cost a lot more than plastic, but they last a lot longer too. We have a SIGG from my father-in-law that he's used for 20 years! And the SIGGs my daughter and I use look like new even though we've used them every day for 6 months.

[keira]

i've been aware of the BPA issue for a long time now. i'm glad it's finally making it into mainstream media. we use kleen kanteens here. love them!
also we have a couple of stainless sippy cups from thermos. i think they are called foogos.
also a great product. look for stainless items, they don't leech harmful substances.
another great site to check out is Enviromental Working Group, find them at www.ewg.org . They have a section on cosmetics and skin care products that rates safety. I've made a lot of changes in the products our family uses based on their studies. Expensive? Yes. Most definitely. But my family's worth it! :) Love your blog Carmen!

[keira]

i've been aware of the BPA issue for a long time now. i'm glad it's finally making it into mainstream media. we use kleen kanteens here. love them!
also we have a couple of stainless sippy cups from thermos. i think they are called foogos.
also a great product. look for stainless items, they don't leech harmful substances.
another great site to check out is Enviromental Working Group, find them at www.ewg.org . They have a section on cosmetics and skin care products that rates safety. I've made a lot of changes in the products our family uses based on their studies. Expensive? Yes. Most definitely. But my family's worth it! :) Love your blog Carmen!

[claire]

Yup, I had to throw out my son's Avent bottles and go for some Evenflo ones that are BPA free; the only ones on Target shelves - so far - that aren't going to leech chemicals into his milk. Also, the containers for Gerber stage 2 foods have it. I can't believe they haven't been recalled yet.

[Katie]

I've been concerned by the possible harmful chemicals in plastics for awhile now but it is hard to avoid them all. Why does it feel like all the progresses that help us move forward (storage, convenience, etc) seem to really be moving us backwards health wise?

[Stacey]

Rats! There goes my favorite gym bottle! I've been meaning to get a SIGG or Kanteen for some time now, so I suppose events have finally overtaken me.
The 2 travel bottles I give to the boys on long trips have no number on them, but I think they said BPA free on the labels.... I'm going to to have to go find them in the store & check. Fortunately the Playtex sippy cups and the Take & Toss we use around the house are 5s

[beth]

Don't just toss people! Recycle!!
:)

[madge]

You can't recycle #7 plastic.

That says a lot in and of itself.

[Tina H.]

What about a #5? I am trying to do some digging on that one. Anyone find out anything?

[Pave.Gurl]

Interestingly, even though I tend to refill water bottles over and over and over again, I never thought to look into this. I just looked at the bases of my two sitting on my desk, though, and they are both #1.

So, apparently, go me.

But seriously? When did living healthy get hard/ expensive and living crappy get easy/ cheap? Doesn't that seem wrong to anyone?

[Chris]

great post for earth day! most folks i know here (in my little academic circle) have switched sometime in the past year. sigg bottles have their own controversies in the ueber-sensitive-community, in case you wondered. i prefer a moderate approach - try to be eco-friendly, but don't get carried away by pop-science hype. the science behind bpa is not actually too alarming unless your kids are drinking lots of warmed liquids from bottles used over and over again. i would suggest, however, just out of eco-friendliness, to buy glass glasses for at home. :)

[Megan]

Quite honestly, I am skeptical - EVERYTHING gives lab rats cancer if it is given to them in high enough doses, and I know some toxicologists who will privately agree with me on that statement. I'm not rushing to throw out anything plastic, but then again I don't have kids either.

Frankly, when I hear people worrying about the 1 in 1 million chance they will get cancer from some toxin according to the latest study that's getting tons of media attention, I always think to myself "so...you all don't ever speed? Tailgate? Talk on a cell phone, eat or change CDs while driving? There's nothing you do that could ever possibly kill you before this stuff does?"

As for Whole Foods, Carmen, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. We have one in my town. They have a great (and pricey) prepared foods section and salad bar, and my cats like their wet cat food, but for everything else I think they're overpriced and overrated. There's very little they have that I can't find cheaper either in the organic food section at Kroger, the local market that sells locally-grown produce in season, or other local stores that sell the more organic and natural shampoos and lotions. I feel like anyone who does all their grocery shopping there is wasting their money.

[Liza]

I love my sigg, and I prefer the screw-top to the kid/sports tops. The shape and design of the bottle-top is very comfortable to drink from, especially the .6 liter size. I find the 1 liter size too large to use comfortably.

[Mom101]

Love my Sigg. And great post. I wrote about it a while back (forgive the gratuitous link but thought you might find some good info in there: mom-101.blogspot.com/2007/09/plastic-bubble-has-burst-or-why-7-is.html )

If it makes you feel a wee bit better, the so-called danger is when the plastic is consistently heated. On it's own it's okay, it's after washing machine and microwave use that the compounds start to break down. Even so, ugh. Scary stuff.

[Zelda]

Have to agree with Megan on this one. There are umpteen million things and habits that will kill us long before BPA will (if in fact it does have harmful consequences for humans in the amounts currently present in the average diet).

Smoking? Overeating? Not exercising? Poor health screening? These are the direct causes of the top three cancer deaths (lung, colorectal, and prostate/breast) as well as the number one killer of all of us....heart disease.

Yikes.

I think the Sigg people and Kleen Kanteen, whoever they are, are laughing to the bank on this one as they prey on consumer fears.