A Chemical-Free Bottle for Baby

Parents now have an alternative to the toxic plastic bottles, which research has shown leaches the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) into food and drink.

Jen Moore, founder of Pura Stainless, has developed an electro-polished stainless steel bottle that’s BPA free, hygienic, lightweight and durable. Best of all, it won’t leach chemicals into the drink inside.

The product is also the first and only infant and toddler bottle to be designed to work with wide neck nipples.

The Green Dove caught up with Jen to get the lowdown on her new award-winning bottles and to get her thoughts on why the public has only recently been told about the cancer-causing chemical, BPA.

What was the inspiration behind the product?

Pura Stainless was created with a simple vision: to make a difference by responsibly manufacturing a safe, durable, and cost-effective alternative to bottled water and the inadequate reusable bottles available to consumers.  While our legacy product is a line of stainless steel adult bottles, we founded the company with a goal of producing the first adaptable and 100% plastic free bottle in the world.

As you know, the Pura Kiki bottle is the first and only infant and toddler bottle to be designed to work with wide neck nipples and spouts from a variety of manufacturers and comprise a stainless steel cap. All other bottles on the market toady (including glass bottles) use plastic collars/lids, which, from our perspective completely defeats the rationale for using a non-plastic bottle in the first place! The Kiki line has been recognized as the leading plastic-free bottle and has already won accolades from around the world. Kiki will be featured in a European design book as an example of cutting edge innovation in children’s products in 2010.

But merely manufacturing the best bottles in the world is only half the battle; the true measure of our success is the leadership role we take in helping to make the planet a better place.  To that end, we are committed to continuously developing new initiatives that help: 1) mitigate the insidious bottled water habit, 2) provide easy and cost effective means of acquiring our products, and 3) provide revenue streams to worthy environmental concerns.  We are proud to have been selected as one of the Top 50 Small Businesses in the US for 2009 by Intuit Inc.

Why stainless steel?

Because even BPA-free plastic can leach petroleum by-products and other chemical components of plastic when heated (think dishwasher or car on a summer day), scuffed, scratched, or worn.

All Pura bottles, collars, and lids are crafted from food service grade (#304) stainless steel – the same safe, durable material that has been used in milk pasteurization, kitchens, and surgical operating rooms for years.  High grade stainless steel is 100% BPA-free, does not leach chemicals like plastic bottles, nor do they require the funky linings of like aluminum bottles.  Stainless steel has not been linked to diseases, developmental problems or anything else for that matter. Are the risks associated with plastic and aluminum bottles really worth the risk?

In addition stainless steel is, on average, comprised of 60% recycled content and they are much more durable than glass, plastic or aluminum.  Stainless bottles are clearly the environmental choice especially as compared with plastic. Your readers probably already know the disturbing facts on plastic bottles: 38 billion end up in landfills every year… enough to circle the globe 150 times if laid end to end… every year!  And, they take up to 700 years to decompose.  Further, a single 1 liter plastic bottle requires five liters of fresh water and 1/4 liter of oil to produce – and they are tossed after one use. Is there any other common human practice that is so wasteful or damaging to our environment?

Feedback on the product so far?

The feedback has been phenomenal! Our Kiki line has already won accolades from around the world and is being recognized as the premium non-plastic infant feeding system. For example, a European publishing house has selected Kiki  as a cutting edge example of innovation in children’s products and has included it in their new design book which will be distributed to over 50 countries in 2010. In addition, we are proud to have been selected as one the TOP 50 small businesses in the US for 2009 in only our second year of existence!

How might parents use a stainless steel bottle compared to a plastic one?

Stainless bottles do not require any substantive behavioral changes. In fact the opposite is true. Stainless bottles are much more durable than plastic, aluminum, or glass bottles and our bottles are backed by an unprecedented lifetime warranty.  Our Kiki line is 100% dishwasher safe and the rounded bottom and electro-polished surfaces make cleaning a snap!

In addition, as we noted above the Kiki line actually adapts to the child as it can morph from an infant bottle w/ nipple to a toddler bottle with sippy spout.  Perhaps the only disadvantage is that a stainless steel bottles can not bu put into a microwave oven… but we all know that formula and mother’s milk should not be microwaved anyway so that does not seem to be much of a limitation.

Why do you think it has taken so long for consumers to notified about the detrimental effects of BPA?

That is a great question and I am not sure I know the entire answer but in my opinion there are two primary reasons:

1) BPA is everywhere and big business does not want to move way from inexpensive disposable containers.  Lets be honest, plastic is much less expensive than stainless steel and the plastic bottle manufacturers do not want to lose their high margin cash cow business.

2) The multi-billion dollar plastics and bottled water industries directly or indirectly pour millions of dollars into lobbying efforts that downplay the issues with BPA and bottled water.  From my perspective these lobbying efforts are not much different than those employed by the tobacco industry for decades.

Interestingly, though BPA is not the only issue with plastic; even so-called BPA-free plastic (all plastic has “some” BPA in it) leaches petroleum by-products when heat cycled, scuffed, scratched or worn.  In fact, if one reads the fine print on plastic sippy cups most say to replace the bottle when it becomes scratched of scuffed due to this very issue.  But as we all know toddlers like to gnaw on plastic and if parents followed the “fine print” many plastic cups or bottles would need to be thrown out after one use!

See www.purastainless.com