Fred Vom Saal’s Test Results Found BPA Leaching From SIGG’s Old Bottles
September 3, 2009 by Alicia
Filed under Buzz, Reusable Bottles for Adults
In a shocking interview released today, Fred Vom Saal, professor of biology at the Universty of Missouri, told The Star that he believes the company-sponsored test of the SIGG metal bottles was a sham.
That test measured the presence of the toxic chemical in parts per billion, he said, while the current standard is parts per trillion – one thousand times more sensitive. “This is appalling. All BPA-lined products leach BPA – end of story, no argument, no exceptions,” said Vom Saal, who has studied bisphenol A for more than a decade. Vom Saal’s tests completed several years ago found SIGG bottles did leach bisphenol A in parts per trillion. He never published his results, as at that time the company’s website publicized their liner as an epoxy resin including BPA, he said.
So the moral of SIGG’s story is that growing your company, widely marketed as eco-conscious, on the wave of consumers who turned to metal bottles in an effort to avoid BPA just doesn’t pay off. We need our green companies to offer more transparency instead of hiding behind proprietary lingo. Which reminds me – we still don’t know what the new EcoCare liner is made from do we?
If you’ve decided you can live out the unknowns, you can swap your SIGG bottle for a stainless steel one in our Big Bottle Swap (see details on the website). Also, Simran Sethi reported in a Huffington Post article that many SIGG retailers are accepting old bottles for refunds (although you won’t find this info on SIGG’s website).
Can we actually see this test?
I don't know who to trust now and this smells like another marketing scam from another company trying to cash in SIGG failure.
I'm using glass bottles. I'm done with all of this rubbish.
Hi Jennifer,
I guess whether Vom Saal chooses to publish his results is up to him. I'm not privy to what his plans are. When accusing Vom Saal of being part of a marketing scam, you must consider that he's the one who lead the way in the BPA-testing process – not SIGG's testing firm. He's been called a quack for speaking his mind in the face of longstanding mainstream beliefs – so I don't peg him for a guy who would sell his whole reputation to back a scam, do you?
When it comes down to it, choosing to trust SIGG is a personal choice, as is using any other product claiming to be healthy. There are many gray areas in the world of marketing, and anyone can work it to their benefit.
As for “cashing in on SIGG's failure” – that's all in how you perceive the situation too. For example, our offer to swap out SIGG's BPA-lined bottles is in answer to more emails and phone calls than you could imagine – all from upset people asking for a solution that didn't involve SIGG.
And I don't blame you for making a choice that doesn't involve plastic in any way . . .
Can we actually see this test?
I don't know who to trust now and this smells like another marketing scam from another company trying to cash in SIGG failure.
I'm using glass bottles. I'm done with all of this rubbish.
Hi Jennifer,
I guess whether Vom Saal chooses to publish his results is up to him. I'm not privy to what his plans are. When accusing Vom Saal of being part of a marketing scam, you must consider that he's the one who lead the way in the BPA-testing process – not SIGG's testing firm. He's been called a quack for speaking his mind in the face of longstanding mainstream beliefs – so I don't peg him for a guy who would sell his whole reputation to back a scam, do you?
When it comes down to it, choosing to trust SIGG is a personal choice, as is using any other product claiming to be healthy. There are many gray areas in the world of marketing, and anyone can work it to their benefit.
As for “cashing in on SIGG's failure” – that's all in how you perceive the situation too. For example, our offer to swap out SIGG's BPA-lined bottles is in answer to more emails and phone calls than you could imagine – all from upset people asking for a solution that didn't involve SIGG.
And I don't blame you for making a choice that doesn't involve plastic in any way . . .