Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
BPA: What is It and What Does It Do?
When my son was six months old, I entered Babies R Us to try to find him a sippy cup. When I got to the "sippy cup aisle," as it were, I was bombarded with labels boasting "BPA Free!" I had never heard of this acronym before, so I asked a Babies R Us employee to fill me in.
"Excuse me?" I said "What is BPA?"
She responded in a curious way.
"Oh, well, it's this thing that's in a lot of plastic items. They're not sure what it does. But it's bad."
This was a disconcerting answer. I needed to know more. Upon further research, I found out that BPA is, in fact, a harmful chemical compound that is found in plastic and canned items. It has been known to cause harmful hormonal changes in rats and has dangerous implications for humans.*
BPA is highly controversial. My colleague and long time friend, Kyle, alerted me to an event surrounding BPA and the Sigg company.
Recently Sigg, the Swiss manufacturer of metal water bottles, announced that there was BPA present in some of their water bottles manufactured before August 2008. Because of this, Sigg is offering a "voluntary exchange program." Any Sigg consumer can send in their old water bottle for a new eco-friendly BPA free water bottle. See this link for more info: http://mysigg.com/bulletin/exchange_program.html
Thankfully, mine and my son's Sigg bottles do not fall into this category. Mine is stainless steel and his has the eco-friendly BPA free liner.
Though I found a ton of information about BPA online, I was still overwhelmed and confused.
I consulted my best friend, Mint. She is my source for all things health related. She recommended I check out grist.org; reliable environmental website that happened to have a great layman's article on BPA.
Here it is:
http://www.grist.org/article/flex-and-effects
This article cleared up my confusion on BPA.
*See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a
"Excuse me?" I said "What is BPA?"
She responded in a curious way.
"Oh, well, it's this thing that's in a lot of plastic items. They're not sure what it does. But it's bad."
This was a disconcerting answer. I needed to know more. Upon further research, I found out that BPA is, in fact, a harmful chemical compound that is found in plastic and canned items. It has been known to cause harmful hormonal changes in rats and has dangerous implications for humans.*
BPA is highly controversial. My colleague and long time friend, Kyle, alerted me to an event surrounding BPA and the Sigg company.
Recently Sigg, the Swiss manufacturer of metal water bottles, announced that there was BPA present in some of their water bottles manufactured before August 2008. Because of this, Sigg is offering a "voluntary exchange program." Any Sigg consumer can send in their old water bottle for a new eco-friendly BPA free water bottle. See this link for more info: http://mysigg.com/bulletin/exchange_program.html
Thankfully, mine and my son's Sigg bottles do not fall into this category. Mine is stainless steel and his has the eco-friendly BPA free liner.
Though I found a ton of information about BPA online, I was still overwhelmed and confused.
I consulted my best friend, Mint. She is my source for all things health related. She recommended I check out grist.org; reliable environmental website that happened to have a great layman's article on BPA.
Here it is:
http://www.grist.org/article/flex-and-effects
This article cleared up my confusion on BPA.
*See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a
Friday, September 11, 2009
Vinegar is Triumphant
When you begin to type the words "My Sigg" in the Google search engine, one of the phrases that automatically comes up is "My Sigg bottle smells." I must confess that I was having this very problem. Despite my efforts to rinse out my Sigg water bottle with dish washing liquid and water, it still had a funny odor.
I called the Sigg customer service center at (203)321-1220. I explained my problem to the receptionst. I then asked her this:
"What is the best way to clean my Sigg?"
"Use a drop of dish washing liquid and a little bit of vinegar. Dilute this solution with water. Let your bottle sit overnight. This will sterilize your bottle. Then rinse it out completely in the morning."
So I gave it a shot. And you know what? It worked! Then I had a flashback. I remembered a while back I was on the phone with my dad. He was raving about the fact that he had cleaned the bathroom with a solution of vinegar and water. Vinegar was his new natural cleaning agent.
I can tell you this; combined with dishing washing liquid, vinegar is excellent at cleaning a Sigg water bottle!
I called the Sigg customer service center at (203)321-1220. I explained my problem to the receptionst. I then asked her this:
"What is the best way to clean my Sigg?"
"Use a drop of dish washing liquid and a little bit of vinegar. Dilute this solution with water. Let your bottle sit overnight. This will sterilize your bottle. Then rinse it out completely in the morning."
So I gave it a shot. And you know what? It worked! Then I had a flashback. I remembered a while back I was on the phone with my dad. He was raving about the fact that he had cleaned the bathroom with a solution of vinegar and water. Vinegar was his new natural cleaning agent.
I can tell you this; combined with dishing washing liquid, vinegar is excellent at cleaning a Sigg water bottle!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Aqua Dads
Today was my son's first swim class. And of course, in true Fader fashion, I was running late as can be. We zoomed out of the house with bags of swimming stuff in hand. Unfortunately, my son hadn't napped yet! He was not pleased...
We got to the Y five minutes late, and I realized that I had a ton of stuff and nowhere to put it. The locker room situation went right over my head, and it hadn't occurred to me to purchase a combination lock. The kind receptionist saw me struggling with my bags and offered to watch my sacks of things. How nice!
When we got to the pool I was introduced to a new phenomenon:
Aqua Dad!
Along with myself, there were three other members of the swimming class and all of them were dads! I wasn't expecting this. I assumed the class would be mom-centric for some reason. I figured there might be a dad or two, but I was overwhelmed by the testosterone in the room.
Needless to say, I became instantly self-conscious that I was wearing a bikini and surrounded by men. But they were all really nice and so were their babies. So I relaxed and soaked in the experience. No pun intended.
Due to his lack of nap, my son wore a stoic expression throughout the class, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
He even liked being dunked under water as the instructor sang the last line to the classic bubonic plague song "Ring Around The Rosy." That line (for those of you who don't know) is "They all fall down!" And with that he was submerged in chlorinated water.
The Aqua Dads seemed to like the class as much as I did. We chatted both in the water and after the class was over.
And, though he played the straight man through the class, when my son left the pool he tried desperately to go back in.
More to come next week on swimming with the Aqua Dads!
We got to the Y five minutes late, and I realized that I had a ton of stuff and nowhere to put it. The locker room situation went right over my head, and it hadn't occurred to me to purchase a combination lock. The kind receptionist saw me struggling with my bags and offered to watch my sacks of things. How nice!When we got to the pool I was introduced to a new phenomenon:
Aqua Dad!
Along with myself, there were three other members of the swimming class and all of them were dads! I wasn't expecting this. I assumed the class would be mom-centric for some reason. I figured there might be a dad or two, but I was overwhelmed by the testosterone in the room.
Needless to say, I became instantly self-conscious that I was wearing a bikini and surrounded by men. But they were all really nice and so were their babies. So I relaxed and soaked in the experience. No pun intended.
Due to his lack of nap, my son wore a stoic expression throughout the class, but he seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
He even liked being dunked under water as the instructor sang the last line to the classic bubonic plague song "Ring Around The Rosy." That line (for those of you who don't know) is "They all fall down!" And with that he was submerged in chlorinated water.
The Aqua Dads seemed to like the class as much as I did. We chatted both in the water and after the class was over.
And, though he played the straight man through the class, when my son left the pool he tried desperately to go back in.
More to come next week on swimming with the Aqua Dads!
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