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Home | Uh-Oh: SIGG Bottles Contained BPA After All!

Uh-Oh: SIGG Bottles Contained BPA After All!

SIGG bottle with ironic claim printed on itBy know you've probably heard that SIGG, the Swiss manufacturer of expensive and stylish aluminum water bottles, hasn't exactly been honest with consumers. After years of claiming that their bottles were BPA-free (which is why so many of us bought them in the first place), SIGG last week revealed that the liners in all their bottles manufactured before August 2008 in fact contain—you guessed it—BPA. SIGG insists that tests show their liners to be non-leaching, but the damage is done. I'm not going to go over the whole sordid story here; there are plenty of places online that do that already, like Huffington Post blogger Simran Sethi.

If you're like many of us, you probably own one or more pre-August-2008 SIGG bottles (which you, ironically, bought to avoid having to use BPA-filled plastic ones). So what do you do with them? Fortunately, SIGG is attempting to make good in light of this PR disaster, and will exchange your old bottles for new versions with their BPA-free "EcoCare" liners.

Visit SIGG's website for instructions on how to return your bottles, and to download a shipping lable and return form. You'll have to pay to return the old bottles, and the program is good through October 31, 2009. Of course they remind us that the old bottles have been "proven not to leach," but at this point it's probably a good idea just to get the new ones.

If you don't feel like going through all that, then you may be in luck: apparently Whole Foods and REI stores will take exchange the old SIGG bottles for either a new model or store credit. That sounds a lot easier than packing the bottles up and shipping them back at your expense. In Marin and the North Bay Whole Foods stores can be found in Mill Valley (415-381-1200), San Rafael (415-451-6333), Petaluma (tel (707-762-9352), and Sonoma (707-938-8500), and REI has outlets in Corte Madera (415-927-1938) and Santa Rosa (tel (707-540-9025). Phone numbers are included because it's always best to call and confirm first, isn't it?