Thursday, April 10, 2008

Turns Out 7 Is Really An Unlucky Number


If anyone missed the Today Show on Wednesday, let me summarize: Your water bottle is going to kill you. I know I might be the easily panicked-typed and I tend to assume worst-case scenarios, but after the segment, I stopped using my water bottle immediately.

The segment reiterated how some plastics are bad for us. We all know this already, right? I never really paid attention to all this because I don’t use plastic that much and the plastic I do use (baby bottles) I never put in the microwave or dishwasher. Well, I did put bottles in the dishwasher at first, but stopped pretty quickly. I am a huge fan of glass ware and have been using Pyrex glass containers for food storage for a decade now. Not because I was scared of plastic, but because I never liked how plastic warped, stained and got all gross. The only plastic I used was my Nalgene water bottle.

The segment clarified what we need to look for on plastic: That little triangle with the number in it, numbered 1 through 7. The evil ones are 3, 6 and 7. The MOST evil one is 7, which is what all of my Nalgenes are. Matt Lauer asked about using a water bottle with a 7 on it and the doctor said “Throw it out.” Ouch. No mincing of words, no equivocation. There goes $50 of Nalgenes that I (and Nicole) have been suing for years. Great. And, now that I think about, one year, Nicole bought dozens and gave one to each of the employees. Now they probably think she was trying to hurt them. I bought one for my mother in law. I gave one to one of my best friends. I bought a mini one for my nephew. I was practically a Nalgene spokesperson.

This morning they did another segment to answer more questions and a different doctor said 3 and 6 are kinda okay, but she would err on the side of caution and not use them. But, she said, backing up what the first doctor said, 7 is evil and stop using 7 immediately.

So yesterday I stopped using my Nalgene and staring just using a glass (so old-fashioned) and today I will go out a buy an aluminum Sigg water bottle. I also went through all of our plastic. We don’t have much but we have lots of baby bottles and plastic sippy cups. The thing that is scary is that most of the girls cups have NO numbers on it. Their bottles have no numbers on it. WTF? I have some Born Free sippy cups and a couple of cups with a “5” on it, which everyone says is completely safe. So that will stay in the Keep pile. Everything else, I’m afraid, is getting tossed into the recyclable bin. I just don’t want to take the chance. I don’t know what to do about the bottles. I am trying to find out what number Avent are. It might be late in the game, but I might just invest in Born Frees or glass for the girls remaining bottle days.

All of this stuff really scares me. Some experts are saying that these leaching chemicals can cause infertility, breast cancer, attention problems, the list goes on and on. But the real damages we won’t know for another twenty years or so, because long-term studies can be conducted on humans, and not just animals. So we won’t know for years and years if there is a problem, and even then, it will take more years for the government to establish regulatory practices. So by the time someone says “Yep, they cause fertility problems and breast cancer” it will be too late for too many. And then, once regulations are re-established, will they be enforced? It’s like the whole lead paint in toys issue: Even though regulations were established toys were still being manufactured with lead paint.

Today is my Gym Day Off and it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, skipping a day. I am that bad, that all-or-nothing, that prone to switch mindsets just because I break a routine. In days gone past (in my 20s) when I skipped d ay at the gym I would punish myself by either not eating ALL DAY except for something tiny like a piece of fruit or I would go to the twice the next day. Fortunately I have moved past those extremes but I still very much have the mindset that I am doing something wrong when I do something like skip a day. As I said ad nauseum, moderation has never been my strong suit, but I am trying to make that suit fit.

Speaking of fitting, my $40 seersucker dress from Target came yesterday and it fits great! I LOVE it! Thank you to the commenter who found it for me. I really don’t think I would have checked Target and might have ended dup spending much more just because I am that set on a family portrait in all seersucker! I owe you!

The Office has a new show tonight!! I am so excited! The preview showed Pam asking a question about dinner which was SO something Nicole would say, right down to the tone. And The Memory Keepers Daughter was made into a Lifetime movie, which will air this Saturday. And I rented There Will Be Blood for Nicole and I to watch at some point, She never saw it and I am excited to see it again. So it is a good TV week.

Pictured above, Miss Madeline and Avery drinking form their “safe” number 5 sippy cups. I have no idea if they are age-appropriate. I put some water in it and tried it myself to see how fast the liquid came out.

13 comments:

K J and the kids said...

I have to go check all of my kids sippys now.

Audra said...

I am so excited about the office.

I just checked the breast cancer awareness water bottle and it's a SEVEN!!! It's what I drink water out of every day!!!

Anonymous said...

I am still reeling from the segment the Today Show did a few weeks ago about how funky lemon wedges are in a restaurant. Not that I eat out a lot, but when I do it is always water with lemon. Now- never again. I am not even going to tell you why. Just know that they showed things on the show that I can never unsee.

f said...

Awesome about the dress!! I totally thought you were kidding and would laugh when I put it up there...very very glad it worked out :-) Can't wait for the A.M. family seersucker portrait! And no black pumps, lady!!

I love my Sigg bottle -- it keeps the water tasting way better too. I bought a bunch online and got a pretty good deal. But thanks for the #7 warning - I'm gonna go sleuthing later this weekend.

suz said...

I used a Camelbak #7 bottle my whole pregnancy - awesome!

If you don't know the number, if it's hard plastic (like a nalgene) it's probably got BPA in it.

I threw out our Nalgene yesterday (after watching the Today show) and ordered Sigg for us and a Klean Kanteen stainless sippy cup for the baby. We use Nuby sippy cups and they are supposedly ok (all but the really hard plastic ones).

Anonymous said...

The Avent bottles do contain BPA (the chemical in question) and when I learned about that a few months ago I threw them out and opted for the BPA-free (and SUPER inexpensive) Gerber Clear View bottles. My pediatrician told me not to worry about the Avent bottles, but something told me that my hunch about BPA was right. Glad I listened to my mommy instincts. The Gerber bottles are great, are easy for my babes to hold, and are three for $3 at Target. I even wash them in the dishwasher.

And reading your post made me realize that I need to investigate our sippy cups too.

Try the Gerber bottles - the Born Free are super expensive and really only necessary for newborns with gas problems (they are better at eliminating air from getting inside)

Denise said...

Ok i am flippin out here.
The only kind of cup that Cameron will use is a nuk. Guess what number they are? Yep a 7!
Because of his cleft and soft palet issues he has had a hard time sucking in general. This cup has the soft tip. I have looked everywhere for something caparable. If anyone knows of anything please let me know. He is attached to them!

judy said...

I have cleaned out my cupboards.
I like your dress. I too am having dressing issues.....PLEASE go over and give me an opinion on which dress you like better.
http://averyopenbook.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

i became paranoid about plastics about a year or so ago. i , too, have a Sigg and love it (water tastes good outa there, also, the babies love playing with it when we're away from home and i'm in a jam for a toy - they must like the coldness or something).

but i remain VERY concerned about 1) plastic toys which i try to keep them from chewing on but really can't 2) the plastic lining of formula cans which i HEARD contain phthlates. great. 3) many shampoos, lotions, etc INCLUDING those made for babies, contain phthalates and these chemicals can be found in the baby's urine an hour after you use the product on the baby. Burt's Bees contains no phthalates by the way.

we use good old-fashioned evenflo glass bottles - then you can heat 'em up in hot water and don't have to worry about something yucky leaching out. also, my little ones like the Thermos Foogo sippy cups which are made from stainless steel. they're a bit heavier than plastic, but what baby can't use bigger biceps, right? heh.

and don't forget - vinyl is one of the worst offenders, they say even the fumes are bad for you (you know that "new shower curtain" smell?)... so toss out the vinyl bibs that the baby chews on and all those inflatable toys.

like i said, i'm paranoid.

what shoes are you gonna wear?

Anonymous said...

p.s. your girlz are delicious.

psapph0 said...

You know... I never really trusted ANYTHING I heard on the Today show.... not sure i'm going to start now...

Casey from LifewithRoozle.com said...

It's all your fault.

I spent the weekend panicking my wife about plastic and numbers and couldn't remember what numbers were good (tho I did remember that 7 is the devil).

We recycled all our nalgenes. Even my most treasured Nantucket one with a whale on the side. It's so sad. But, though it is AWESOME, it was starting to taste weird. And I just learned that weird=POISON!

I am now in the process of switching to glass for everything. We don't have any babies yet, but when we do, we will use glass bottles. Unless you want to tell us something horrible about those too?

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