How Can You Recognize a BPA-Free Bottle After the SIGG Scandal?

They were supposed to be one of the greenest green companies...their signature bottles sold in organic groceries, yoga studios, health centers and more. But today there's a national uproar over the BPA found in the liners of SIGG baby bottles made before 2008.

Sigg Aluminum Baby Bottles Has Trace Amounts of BPA - ABC News
Shared via AddThis

If the first lesson of green marketing -- transparency -- needed to be demonstrated, there couldn't be a better case study.

• While SIGG was aware of the BPA in the liners since 2006 - and was evidently developing a BPA-free liner - they continued to imply that their bottles were safe and eco-friendly (though they claim they never specifically said they were BPA-free).
• Now, knowing of the contamination, they are giving consumers information to identify and return the pre-2008 bottles for exchange, though customers must pay shipping charges, and SIGG will not refund the purchase price. News stories emphasize - this is not a recall.

The key question of the story, however, is not just SIGG's downfall and questionable ethics, but also the impact on green companies producing similar products with similar claims of safety. Who can be trusted? What level of safety is necessary for consumers to feel comfortable?

The answer, again, lies in transparency: who is willing to provide complete documentation for their claims of safety, and whose claims stand up under questioning?

As an eco-consultant, mom, and health-minded consumer, I advise clients to follow three steps to know if the bottles they purchase are indeed safe for themselves and their children:

• First of all, exercise a healthy curiosity and skepticism regarding unsupported claims.
• It may be tempting to buy a beautiful lined bottle - but do your homework first. Read the product information, ask the tough questions
• Find companies you can trust, who are dedicated to transparency and provide full documentation regarding their products.
• Finally, to seek out companies that have found healthier alternative to using any liners at all in their bottles.

For example, like SIGG, Green Irene offers water bottles....but there's a difference. SIGG's bottles are aluminum, decreasing their weight but also involving the possibility of a chemical reaction with their contents - thus making liners necessary.

Green Irene, on the other hand, offers a selection of food-grade stainless steel bottles that are inert and completely non-reactive to the acid/alkaline level of the water you put in them. And for this reason, they do not need any liner of any kind.

Not only this - one of Green Irene's stainless steel bottles also features a carbon filter that can remove organic and inorganic impurities including harmful organisms, chemicals and heavy metals. (pesticides, detergents, aluminum, radon 222, mercury, etc.)

There's even a Safe Sippy Cup of stainless steel with a lid made of #5 plastic or polypropylene (the safest and most stable of all plastics). All plastics used have been independently tested free of BPA and phthalates.

There is no excuse for companies that misdirect their customers to believe that products are safe when they're not. Every consumer has the right to honest answers to their questions - and safe and healthy products for themselves and their children.

Let's face it: all companies that offer reusable water bottles will - and should - face increased scrutiny in the wake of the SIGG scandal. Only those companies that demonstrate transparent dedication to the consumers' best interest, and provide solid documentation for their claims, will rise to the top.