Nalgene Dumps Bisphenol A Like Hot Potato

Well, what bottle can I use now?

I can't use the metal bottle because of the aluminum and the fact my dentist is scared I'll hurt my teeth.

Is there any other bottle products that are better?

What about watermain pipes? It looks like they used it as a lining in some of those. Is no water safe?

The New York Times quotes the chair of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, an industry group, as saying that researchers had been unable to develop an alternative lining that performs as well as the current epoxy. “The epoxy resins are the gold standard right now.”

Since when are linings essential?

Just use glass or steel bottles and wash them.

Hmm, can I exchange my existing nalgene bottle for one of the new bisphenol A free ones?

Real evidence that consumers are becoming more vocal, and companies are listening.

It will be interesting to see if these new Nalgene bottles advertise the fact that they are BPA Free. Thoughts?

Thanks for keeping on this story. Very helpful.

For the record, Nalgene has always produced some BPA free products. The only Nalgene's I've ever owned were the Polyethylene bottles(frosted looking and more flexible). This is mainly because they were a lot cheaper, even if they had disadvantages over the Polycarbonate bottles.

In keeping with the "cradle to grave" philosophy of product manufacturing that is currently gaining some momentum among electronics manufacturers, is Nalgene preparing a program to collect the great mass of BPA-containing bottles that will otherwise be dumped in landfills? I've heard that you can't *really* recycle #7 plastic.

This is why my old BPA-Nalgene is sitting on a shelf right now. I'm not going to use it, but I worry about simply throwing it away. Doesn't seem very responsible. I bet that incredible shatter resistance would give a garbage truck a difficult time in pulverizing it, too ;-)

The bottles are not producing a limitless supplly of leachable BPA. After a time what was not polymerized is gone. Don't sweat the little stuff.

I love this quote!
Go customers! The government can sit on it's butt but when Wal-Mart talks, companies listen.

You can use stainless steel bottles or glass. How are you drinking things so hard that you risk hurting your teeth??

Seconding the polyethylene Nalgene bottles - HDPE is pretty friendly stuff as far as plastic goes. Get the opaque flexy bottle and your teeth will do just fine.

I asked about whether Nalgene will be doing an exchange program and got the following response:

"Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your questions regarding BPA. We have listened to our customers' concerns and are transitioning our polycarbonate line into the BPA free everyday(tm) Nalgene(tm) line made from Tritan(tm) co-polyester. We do not intend to recall any of our products and will not issue a credit or refund money for products, as the science indicates the Nalgene products containing BPA are safe for their intended use. Please visit our website at:
for further information. We thank you for your support."

So I guess Nalgene makes out pretty well, we all have to purchase new Nalgene bottles! I noticed that REI had already pulled all the BPA bottles off the shelf at our local store this past weekend.

I'm really interested in the Sigg bottles but is the aluminum and epoxy they use to line their bottles safe?

REI has pulled all of its BPA Nalgene products

Would the authors please find out what is in the SIGG bottle before they recommend it. SIGG refuses to say what is in their epoxy, inlcuding BPA. They will not say that is sin't in there either. Only they say it has been tested for BOA (only one study THEY paid for) and there were no detectable levels. Hmmm.
Please someone do an independent study.
debby

If the epoxy that Sigg uses in their aluminum bottles is safe, why can't the North American Metal Packaging Alliance use something similar to line cans? Maybe:
-Sigg's got an intelectual property lock on chemistry so unique that it can't be approximated without violating their IP rights.
-That's the reason that Sigg bottles are so expensive and their lining material/process can't be applied to cheap cans.
-Sigg's lining really isn't safe so North American Metal Packaging Alliance members won't use it.
-NAMPA is stonewalling with the old TINA argument: There Is No Alternative.
If Sigg has something that good, they should consider licensing it for non-competitive applications like disposable food packaging. That would increase their stature and market with no ill-effects on their business.

Gary

WHY ARE THE BOTTLES NOT GOING TO BE RECALLED? I HAVE SEVERAL HARD BOTTLES. WE SHOULD BE GIVEN SOME SORT OF DISCOUNT. WHERE WOULD THEY BE IF WE HADN'T BOUGHT THE BOTTLES IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHERE WILL THEY BE IF WE DON'T BUY THE NEW BOTTLES?

I used my old Nalgene botles to store baking soda that I use in the laundry and for cleaning. I thought it was a good way to reuse the bottle for storage without ingesting what I am storing in it. No need to throw them away! Thanks for the heads up on the sigg bottles. I had blindly accepted that they were a safe alternative, as I had done with Nalgene my entire life.

I emailed Nalgene about this issue almost exactly one year ago. The only response I received was a link to *one* study that said Bisphenol-A was not unsafe.

Fast forward to now, and they release a line of "BPA free" bottles all the while standing behind their claim that BPA is not harmful.

My family has used Nalgene bottles for years, and I even had a small "sippy cup" for my young son that was made out of #7 plastic. Young children are at greater risk from the buildup of these chemicals in the body, and Nalgene has lost my trust permanently.

I have replaced our Nalgene bottles with stainless steel at considerable expense and wouldn't buy one of their "safe" bottles now even if I did have the extra money.

stainless steel!

www.kleankanteen.com

Can you say BOYCOTT ?

Good bye Nalgene !

Now if Nalgene would just stop making products for animal testing....

Consumers, speak up!

This, (despite being a terrifying warning for consumer safety) is GREAT news for my hometown, where the world headquarters of Eastman Chemical is located. No job cuts this year, whoo hoo!
Go Kingsport!

Looking for a replacement for polycarbonate? Try Polyamide. It's a honey-colored plastic, the URL I'm including shows a baby bottle with it. Hope it will link above the post.

We do need to do something about our overuse of plastic, however. I watched a documentary about the "plastic soup" that has gathered in the pacific ocean today. It was horrifying.

What about Sigg water bottles? From what I have read they seem to be a safe alternative to plastic bottles.

I read a good article about toxins in our water bottles and containers

What am I supposed to use now? Is stainless steel a good option?

Glad I found reference to the #7 used as I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Chemicals not listed and don't know where to find code references. Thanks.

REI has offered to exchange or credit you for Nalgene, and Camelback bottles made with #7 plastics. Kleen Kanteen is just aluminum, no lining. I've converted to those and am satisfied, although I am dissappointed in Nalgene.

Nalgene is not recalling them because they stand by the product.
They're discontinuing the 7 bottles because of the customers freaking out, not because of the study.

Re: refunds - I just called REI, and they are giving refunds for the current worth of the bottles. My 32oz widemouth is worth $5.78, or something like that. Hardly worth the drive across town.

Plus, I've gotten good use out of the bottles, so I think I will find another use for them.

Returning them at this point would be a cheap (meaning skinflint) and petty move with little productive result.

So they're not doing an official recall. Don't Nalgene bottles have a lifetime warranty? So after they stop making the BPA bottles, just break it and get a replacement.

I have been trying to find out what the water bottle from the Pur water dispenser is made of and whether it is a polycarbonate. I do not know enough chemistry to translate the answer I received from the company. Here is what they sent:

None of our PUR dispensers contain BPA (Bisphenol A). We want to assure you that our dispenser products are made from safe, high quality plastics found in the polystyrene family. NSF International, a national independent testing laboratory, assures that no harmful substances 'leach' into the filtered water from any of the materials we use in the production of our products. You can be confident you are getting cleaner, healthier, great-tasting water when you use PUR products.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you.

I need help interpreting this information re: Pur water filter dispensers. I do not know enough chemistry to tell how similar polycarbonate and polystyrene are. Also, I feel as though the answer "polystyrene family" is not enough information.

None of our PUR dispensers contain BPA (Bisphenol A). We want to assure you that our dispenser products are made from safe, high quality plastics found in the polystyrene family. NSF International, a national independent testing laboratory, assures that no harmful substances 'leach' into the filtered water from any of the materials we use in the production of our products. You can be confident you are getting cleaner, healthier, great-tasting water when you use PUR products.

LA: I had the same issue with Brita, who told me they use styrene plastic, which is not as durable and crack-resistant as polycarbonates but is BPa free. I think that if they say they are made with styrene you are OK.

I was looking for the recycling code on my PUR dispenser to figure out the kind of thermoplastic used, but there wasn't any. I was suspecting it wasn't polycarbonate (PC), as it wouldn't make sense for them to use PC given that it's quite expensive (it's interesting mechanical properties aren't required in a PUR dispenser). When BPA is used in the manufacturing of PC, it's to enhance those mechanical properties even further (making it even more shock resistant), so even if it had been PC, it wouldn't necessarily involve BPA.

Polystyrene actually makes perfect sense, it's cheap, it's rigid and it's transparent (by default). Polystyrene will leech styrene (which is an aromatic hydrocarbon). It's not considered very toxic, but it is suspected of being carcinogenic and in high doses will affect your nervous system. It occurs naturally in very low doses in lots of different foods. The amount leeched by polystyrene is supposed to be extremely low (if any) at normal ambient temperatures. At higher temperatures (water boiling point and above), studies have shown some leeching, particularly in the expanded form of polystyrene (aka styrofoam), but the results are inconclusive whether or not the levels are high enough to cause harm.

So given that a PUR dispenser is dealing with water at ambient temperature (or lower), which is also a requirement for not damaging the PUR filter itself, the styrene leeching (if any) at that temperature is apparently completely harmless (you may well be exposed to more styrene naturally found in foods).

I'm definitely not worried and will continue using my PUR dispenser.

Why the sudden defense of WalMart? It's is a farce. WalMart is the enemy of the world! It seems they are trying to suck us all into their circle. People, don't believe these journalists defending them. They are benefiting somehow.

You bought the bottles because they were tough enough to use, full of water, for impromptu soccer matches on asphalt. And they didn't make your water taste bad. Quality stuff. Until someone proves Nalgene went out of its way to continue producing chemically questionable stuff, I'm not going to say a negative word against them. As far as I'm concerned, they found a problem and fixed it. And if you think you deserve a refund somehow... I would rather have Nalgene continuing to produce quality bottles for the next 100 years than have them go belly up replacing every one they've sold so far. As to Walmart is the devil... I'd rather have that particular devil on my side pushing producers, suppliers, and in the end consumers to follow their lead and work on ZERO waste and clean tech. You can fling boogers at bad guys if you want to... but when Walmart swings a blow at a bad old idea, it makes the world shake. We're too far gone to just keep flinging boogers...

REI will exchange Nalgene bottles at their retail outlets. Don't know if they will do it by mail but definitely at their stores. I was told no limit on the number of bottles you could exchange.

Some technical points on some metal bottles...

Klean Kanteen uses stainless steel. High quality stainless will not corrode or leach chemicals into water.

Sigg's approach is to use cheap extruded aluminum forms which they then put some really nice finishes on. The interior isn't an "epoxy", it's a type of stove enamel. the super hard coating on most stoves that is essentially bomb proof. The stuff is almost as good as glass (it's baked on, much like pottery glaze is melted on in a kiln). Their exteriors are baked on powder coats (a type of industrial paint), and the fun designs are just standard paint. An effective design, but a pure stainless bottle is more readily recycled and requires fewer processes to produce. When purchasing your bottles don't just think about it's immediate life/death. Think about what it took to get the steel or aluminum out of the ground, how much power it took to process the metal, where things get transported, the chemicals used to clean, paint, finish the bottles, and how easily the materials used are reintegrated into the flow of technical materials in the market place.

Think: Cradle to Cradle. (a great book! read it!)

Flip top glass bottles like the ones used by Lorraine Lemonade (perfect picnic size) and Grolsch beer (individual beverage size) are VERY reusable and a with terrycloth (or cooler bag material) sleeve are insulated and padded. Blackburn's jam also comes in a screw top jar (with a common-size, easily-replaced lid). I use all three of these and have been doing so for several years, though the Blackburn's is most loved. It's the travel mug that never leaves my side. The point is, they're not plastic. You don't have to worry about figuring out the chemistry behind its make up because it's that highly recyclable universal material called GLASS.