Drishti – Santa Barbara Yoga Store: Yoga Clothing, Workout Clothes, & Yoga Supplies

…the well-known company SIGG announces that that the liners of many of its reusable metal water bottles (i.e. the part of the bottle which comes in direct contact with the water!) contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), an infamous chemical long suspected to be hazardous to humans.

Yes, it’s true, guys.  Steve Wasik, the CEO of SIGG, officially announced in a two-page letter on the SIGG website that all of their water bottles manufactured before August of 2008 contain BPA.  What’s even more noteworthy is that the company has apparently known for years about this BPA presence and did not disclose the information until now.

Not surprisingly, SIGG has come under much fire since the release of Mr. Wasik’s letter.  The blogging world has been full of criticism for the company, and established news organizations like The Boston Globe, Mother Jones, and Salon.com have all covered the story.  And in a meaningful move, Patagonia terminated their contract with SIGG over the controversy.

In response to this negative backlash, Mr. Wasik published a second letter with a decidedly more humble, apologetic tone.  Here’s an excerpt:

After reading and responding to hundreds of emails and viewing nearly as many blog & Twitter posts, I realize that my first letter may have missed the mark.  What I should have said simply and loudly to all of our loyal SIGG fans is:  I am sorry that we did not make our communications on the original SIGG liner more clear from the very beginning.

SIGG has initiated a voluntary exchange program (not a recall), in which consumers who own these pre-August 2008 bottles can send their product back to the company for a BPA-free product in exchange.  We wonder how many of you own BPA-containing SIGG water bottles.  And if you do, do you plan to utilize SIGG’s exchange program, or will you instead apply the dollars you would have spent on shipping your bottle back to the purchase of a new water bottle from a different company?