After countless years of using old polycarbonate Nalgene bottles, we finally switched to aluminum Sigg bottles a while back after learning that our Nalgene bottles contained bisphenol-A, a hormone-disrupting chemical also known as BPA. The Sigg bottles seemed like a reasonable choice, with cool designs and a better fitting top (unlike my Nalgene that constantly dripped water out of the cap threads). The only thing I didn’t like about it was that the mouth opening was small, making it hard to clean. After a while it would develop a strange smell and seemed to make water taste musty. They do make special cleaning tablets, but I never tried them. However, I was bummed to find out recently that the epoxy lining in our Sigg bottles were actually made with BPA, too!

A few months back, David opted for a Klean Kanteen. Sleek and much easier to clean with rounded corners and no smell. More importantly, it is made with toxin-free, high quality, recyclable, food grade stainless steel. When I came across a wide-mouth version, I also made the switch (and was tempted by the kid kanteen with sippy attachment!).

For the record, both new Nalgene and new Sigg bottles are now BPA-free. Also, Sigg says that their liners have not been proven to leach BPA, but there is some controversy that they knowingly hid the fact that BPA was used at all. We knew we had the BPA version of Sigg bottles because our liners were shiny gold, purchased before Sigg recently switched to their new ivory colored “EcoCare” liner. Here’s a visual comparison, so you can check your own bottles.

BIG NEWS!

While I was perusing mysigg.com I came across their voluntary exchange program. You can ship your old bottle back and they will email you a gift certificate code to shop online for a replacement bottle! Download a shipping label and return form (although you will have to pay to ship it back yourself).

Postscript: Just read My Body Burden on the 7Gen blog and found the information on BPA very interesting.