Sigg bottles are leaving Katy Farber with a bitter taste. Like countless other eco-conscious consumers, the Middlesex, Vt., teacher switched to the aluminum bottles for her two young girls because of bisphenol-A, or BPA, a substance commonly used to harden plastic that has raised health concerns about plastic bottles.
Now this shocker: Bottles made by the company before August 2008 had “trace amounts” of BPA in their liners, which Sigg had known since June 2006 but didn’t announce until last month.
Indignant Sigg owners such as Farber have been blogging their outrage. “I did feel betrayed by a company that was putting itself out there as a green and safe company,” Farber said. “Why wasn’t this disclosed earlier?”
Sigg Switzerland chief executive SteveWasik said Thursday that he was surprised by the consumer response. He said Sigg had a deal with the vendor that made the old liner not to divulge the proprietary formulation and that Sigg was careful not to make BPA-free claims.
Still, the company is running a program through Oct. 31 allowing people to mail in bottles with the old lining — which was a copper- bronze color — and pick a free replacement (although customers must pay shipping).
