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If the bottom of your Nalgene bottle has a number 7 in the middle of the recycling symbol, you probably want to rethink drinking out of it.Same goes for any plastic bottle. Think baby bottles in particular.
Last week Canada banned the chemical behind the "7" -- BPA(Bishpenol A)in baby bottles ...making it the first country to ban the chemical.
The numbers 3 and 6 aren't much better --they indicate the product has a chemical similar to BPA.
Canada's decision has had an amazing domino effect on companies in the U.S. From Non-Toxic Kids
Oh, Canada! How you act so quickly. While it takes our congress years to reform the CPSC, you move in one week to ban BPA from all baby bottles. You have the honor of being the first country to ban BPA (I thought the EU would win on this one). And look what you have started--
lWhat Katy Farber was referring to is this article from The Washington Post which reports that American companies are doing something they are not known to do --the are being proactive and declaring that they will stop manufacturing products with BPA.
Wal-Mart Canada began pulling all baby products containing BPA from its shelves this week, and the chain said it plans to stop selling products containing BPA in U.S. stores by next year. Playtex said it would offer free non-BPA bottles to parents and will stop using BPA in all products by year's end. Nalgene, the maker of reusable water bottles that are popular among athletes, said yesterday it would discontinue production of bottles made with the chemical and recall existing products already in its stores.
The move in Canada adds pressure on U.S. federal regulators to reexamine their position on BPA, which is suspected of causing breast and prostrate cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity and other serious disorders in laboratory animals. This week, a federal health panel in the United States for the first time expressed concerns about BPA.
It is Nalgene--not the baby bottle manufacturers who has been getting bad press over the BPA controversy. That's because until very recently, Nalgene was a staunch advocate claiming BPA poised no risk to humans.
As Z Recommends wrote on April 10, 2008 . she believes Nalgene got nervous after the Today Show ran a segment citing Nalgene as a brand to avoid.
I'm sure Nalgene was taking the temperature across the internet, and saw an alarming amount of interest being generated out of the show.
Yesterday afternoon Nalgene launched a new website, Nalgene Choice, to showcase two new lines, one plastic and the other stainless steel, as well as a variety of other specialized drinkware products made of a laundry list of BPA-free plastics - polyethylenes (HDPE, LDPE, PET) and even some polypropylene food storage containers aimed probably at outdoorsy types.
The website offers detailed information about each product's temperature ranges, durability, and BPA status, falling just short of actually stating that their keystone polycarbonate bottle contains BPA.
Our assumption is that this site has been ready for weeks or even months and Nalgene had a planned, well-choreographed launch that they abandoned to seize on this moment of intense scrutiny and bad press.
The site is suddenly live, with a fresh press release to accompany it, but the new bottles do not yet appear to be available for sale.
The new plastic water bottles are made of a hard, clear plastic called Tritan copolymer, a BPA- and phthalate-free plastic that chemical company Eastman claims features a level of durability and clarity similar to polycarbonate.
The plastic is currently used in Camelbak's new BPA-free alternative to its own polycarbonate water bottle; the BPA-free version is called the Better Bottle with Classic Lid, and Camelbak explicitly promotes it as a BPA-free alternative.
The company also plans to switch its more popular Bite Valve model from polycarbonate to Tritan copolymer sometime this spring. [Great digging, Alwaysalli!] We are looking into this new plastic and will let readers know if we learn about any chemical and potential estrogenic properties that might suggest caution.
From MSNBC,
What is so dramatic about the decisions by Nalgene, Wal-Mart and Playtex to recall these products is that they are recalling products before someone said "you have to recall these products."
That would never have happen prior
