Even Keeled

Surprised this hasn’t been picked up more broadly, but REI stopped selling any water bottles made with BPA (a common ingredient in many plastic items).  All were pulled from the shelves as of last week.   Moro info directly from their website:

Due to the concerns recently voiced by many REI customers, REI no longer offers (as of April 19, 2008) polycarbonate water bottles. Polycarbonate is a tough, translucent plastic that includes bisphenol A (BPA). Ongoing scientific debate about the appropriateness of polycarbonate for beverage containers has resulted in REI offering many BPA-free water bottle alternatives (described above), which have replaced the demand for polycarbonate.

Recent findings by a government agency were the key driver for the decision, as well as growing customer preference:

The National Toxicology Program said two weeks ago there is “some concern” about BPA from experiments on rats that linked the chemical to changes in behavior and the brain, early puberty and possibly precancerous changes in the prostate and breast. While such animal studies only provide “limited evidence” of risk, the draft report said a possible effect on humans “cannot be dismissed.”

In fact Nalgene, one of the most common brands, stopped manufacturing BPA based items entirely.   Wow.   Aluminum appears to be the container of preference now, which should benefit Sigg substantially.   Could be an over reaction, who knows.  I’m going to create a flask from sheep intestine just to be safe.