Monday, April 21, 2008

BPA Bottle Returns: better late than never

With Health Canada finally taking the sensible position on BPA, there are lots of worried parents out there, both because of what they may have been outwittingly exposed their children to and because of the significant cost of replacing all their bottles, sippy cups and even breast pumps. Add to this the fact that the #7 plastic is not easily recycled and most municipalities don't accept it and what you've got a big heap of garbage!

There is a huge long list of items that will now be on the "banned" list, but rest assured that if you have Medela pumps/bottles, you're fine.

On the other hand, if you have Avent, you can be sure that their #7 plastic does contain BPAs and that includes the Isis Hand Pump (which totally stinks, because I have one and really like it). Other manufacturers include: Dr. Brown's, Playtex and Gerber.

This blog has a pretty good explanation of what BPA is and why it's bad stuff: http://neilhubert.blogspot.com/2008/02/bpa-7-plastic-more-confusing-possibly.html

The whole thing really stinks, but there is some good news in all of it: Zellers, Wal-Mart and London Drugs have all agreed to offer store credit for the now-banned items. While it's only a store credit and it doesn't negate the hassle of returning them (or the worry at having used them at all), it's a good PR move on their part. No receipts or packaging - if you have trouble be sure to ask the store manager, as this is a national campaign.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

I have also had word that Sears is participating in the recall. Wal-Mart is apparently not refunding Avent bottles, because they do not carry them.

Also, several readers have advised me that the Avent Sippy Cups (those in colour) are not on the recall list as they use a different type of plastic which does not contain BPAs.

Feel free to post your updates on here - and let other parents in your community know what's going on.

Michelle said...

Updated again to say that Wal-Mart is accepting Avent returns in Ontario, at least.