Ever since carrying water around became trendy, especially among my outdoorsy friend in college, I also became obcessed with carrying around a Nalgene bottle of water. Once Nalgene came out with cool colors I had to upgrade to the funnest, most expressive color that matched my personality at the time.
In college, my lovely Environmental Art teacher taught us about BPA, and other harmful chemicals in products that we were using everyday. I was surprised to learn that transparent Naglege bottles (the same ones that came in cool colors) are made from #7 grade pastic, which leaches out BPA (and into our drinking water –Ack!). If you somehow have been living under a rock recently and don’t know what BPA is or how bad it is for you (and your future children if you are a childbearing woman) look here.
My lovely teacher also told us that the white colored Nalgene bottles, the ones that are made from #2 grade plastic, didn’t appear to have BPA problems (which surprised me, because as anyone who has/had a “white” colored Nalgene knows, the water that you put into it tastes disgustingly like plastic –especially after sitting in the sun for a bit). Click here for an outlining of which plastics are safe and which ones aren’t. Basically # 3, 6, 7 are bad!
So, all my beautiful Nalgene bottles were kicked to the curb in favor of Sigg bottles (by the way, Nalgene has removed all of the BPA from their current plastic water bottles, but personally I don't want to be using plastic anymore). Sigg bottles come in even more fun styles, and designs! Sigg bottles are made from aluminum, that has been coated with epoxy liners to prevent the harmful aluminumness from leaching into your water…or so we all though. Apparently Sigg bottles have issues with this lining.
The Big Wigs at Sigg were never very forthcoming about whether or not the epoxy lining of the Sigg bottles contained BPA or other harmful chemicals. Sigg even changed their liners and issued a recall (the recall is now over, so no dice if you want to exchange your bottle) on all their old bottles (to know more about whether or not you have an old Sigg bottle click here).
The new liners are apparently “safe,” but the bottom line as I see it is that the Sigg Big Wigs weren’t transparent about their “secret-formula” epoxy liners, and I just can’t trust them now. This is just me, and you should read up about it and make your own decisions about whether you are going to keep your Sigg bottles (but please if you care about your health please throw out your old Sigg bottle if you have an old brass colored lining –read here), and consider this about the new (cream-colored lining) bottles: “Just because a bottle is labeled ‘BPA-free’ there is no guarantee that another toxic chemical wasn’t used as the replacement,” -Sarah Janssen, staff scientist at the NRDC.
I have decided to forgo the plastic (of any grade), kibosh the Sigg bottles (who needs aluminum and epoxy?), and go with stainless steel. There are several wonderful companies out there who sell glorious stainless steel bottles (which are also assuradely BPA free!). Click here for an outline of some safe, stainless steel alternatives. I personally like the Earthlust water bottles because of their light weight and stunning designs!
Happy and safe drinking!
