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Sigg and Whole Foods
Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 12:53PM A few years ago, I experienced a health crisis that left me shaken and will probably be in the back of my mind forever. Around the same time, I had several close friends give birth to babies that have genetic issues that are rare and scary. What I do when I'm nervous about something is I research it exhaustively. It helps me feel like I'm in control. And I take action on what I can, even if my skeptical mind knows the adjustiment may be so minor as to not even be effective. It still soothes me to learn everything I can about an issue and control what I can to soften the blow of the unpredictable.
So, after that health crisis had passed, I started reading about environmental hazards. Out went my speical treat- water bottles and our big water cooler. I loved my water cooler but the water was brought to my house in big #7 plastic bottles so I made the switch to filtered tap water- mqaybe a little reactionary and silly but again, I wanted to feel in control of something. But how to tote the water around our house? Naturally I opted for Sigg bottles. I have a weird, inexplicable faith in European standards- very often they seem to be on the cutting edge of health safety that the US only catches up with a year or more later (just my impression, anyway). So Siggs it was- despite the fact that they're costly. So each of my precious babies has gone to bed with their Sigg bottles each night since and I've felt just a little more, well, in control of BPAs, leeching plastic and all those other health concerns hinted at here in the US.
Three days ago, I saw this: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/689714 Turns out Sigg has had BPAs all along but didn't feel the need to share the information because they probably are safe. Wow. Are you kidding me? I should have known- all my need to control our environment and I'm out of the pot and into- not exactly the fire really but back into the pot. So here's the deal. My local Whole Foods is exchanging Sigg bottles for free. Hassle-free. You bring in the old, BPA liner bottles and you get to pick our replacements with the now (fingers-crossed they're being up-front now) BPA-free bottles (graphic below is from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/sigg-bottles-now-bpa-free.php and I really suggest you click there and read the facts about this Sigg issue- it's really not THAT big of a deal but I still feel frustrated).
You GO, Whole Foods. I wrote Sigg a minorly scathing letter and asked about replacements and got this reply: "Please visit http://mysigg.com/bulltin where we have information on how you can replace your bottles through our exchange program." Apparently with me paying the shipping costs. Meanwhile Whole Foods steps up to make this convient for me. Guess who I feel some loyalty toward now? My only hope is that Sigg PAYS for these replacement bottles from Whole Foods because, while I DID replace my kids' 5 bottles and I feel relatively secure with them, I have no plans to buy more in the future. I'm still miffed.
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Reader Comments (5)
oooh, i'd be miffed too. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I try to stay away from everything aluminum, so I'll stick with stainless steel only water bottles. {And as a huge plus they've got some cute ones at Starbucks!} I haven't switched my kids to Stainless Steel {yet}...there are lots of BPA free kids bottles out there, but I do like the ones from Kleen Kanteen.
Here's some information about different bottles if you are interested: http://catheolson.blogspot.com/search/label/water%20bottles
Have you ever tried Klean Kanteen? It isn't aluminum, It's Stainless Steel! Usually I leave my water bottle in the car... Yikes! Its always get HOT in the car! But yet when I open the bottle, the water is still cold! I ♥ my water bottle!
Angela - thanks for posting this info on your blog -- we, like you, purchased the Sigg products for our water etc. assuming we were doing a good thing. I hadn't heard any of this info so I truly appreciate you sharing it with your blog readers. Unfortunately, we don't have a Whole Foods in our community - the nearest is 2 hours away but I think it might be worth a drive. THANKS!
Wow, thanks for sharing, new siggs was on my christmas shopping list and will stop to check details before investing.