Returning Swag

When we registered at Babies R Us they were kind enough to give us a complementary gift box. Well, okay, okay, it had nothing to do with kindness. It was full of baby swag. There was a free pacifier and a free baby bottle and free wipes and a free disposable diaper. The idea is that you'll see how great these things are and buy more. The baby bottle in particular is a big deal since parents tend to stick with one brand so everything fits together and parents will potentially spend hundreds of dollars on bottles, nipples, bottle warmers, bottle brushes, etc.

The swag bottle in question here was a Phillips Avent bottle. There are absolutely no markings on the bottom and no information in the packaging telling what the bottle is made of. When I was at Target I checked out the Avent stuff and they say everything is made from "medical grade materials." Keep in mind that means almost nothing.

What we're looking for here folks is one key phrase; two words really. It isn't hard to understand, it could be added to any package and it would boost sales.

The simple phrase is: "bisphenol-A free"

The reason Phillips Avent doesn't have this phrase on their package is that it isn't true. All of the Avent bottles are made of polycarbonate and polycarbonate cannot be made without bisphenol-A.

The Phillips Avent baby bottle leaches bisphenol A and contains it at a range of 6-8 ppb which is the highest rate of the top five brands. (warning: link is a pdf)

Bisphenol-A is not something you want in your babies body. Now the plastics industry (the champions of truth, honor and cancer who brought us dioxins and phthalates in children's toys) claims again and again that good old bisphenol A is fine to pump into your kid (at least at the levels present in the bottles)

Well that's odd, why does a search of the available literature reveal are there 148 published, government funded, bisphenol A studies that report significant health effects including altering "virtually every aspect of the reproductive system." These effects take place at very low doses.

The chemical companies must be basing their claims on something. Maybe it is the 27 studies that found no evidence of harm. This isn't surprising since thirteen of those studies were financed by the very same chemical corporations who have multi-billion dollar industries hinging on the results of those studies. I know we all trust the Tobacco industry studies on the safety of smoking too. Don't most doctors smoke Camels?



In the end, there are people and groups on both sides of this debate who say their side is right. Here's the thing though. Bisphenol A is a known endocrine disruptor and it strongly bonds to multiple human receptors. This is an undisputed fact. The chemical companies say, well yes but polycarbonate plastic leaches an acceptable amount. Who says what is acceptable? Maybe the bottle alone is fine but what about the bottle plus all of the other sources the baby is exposed to over their lives?

Some people will look at our gift registry and see the things we plan on getting for our child and think we're weird. Organic cotton onesies? Phthalate-free silicone pacifiers? Bisphenol A-free baby bottles? What gives? I can see my grandmother saying, "We didn't have these things when I grew up." Well, she did! The food was organic, the latex pacifiers didn't have pthalates and the glass baby bottles didn't contain bisphenol A.

I guess we're just old fashioned. Why put chemicals into your baby when there is no need to?

We'll be returning the polycarbonate Avent bottle to the store later this week and requesting that they have more alternatives in stock. We're creating a baby not a chemical waste dump.

~Kirk