By Michael Prager

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association is again spearheading a regional green buildings open house this weekend, in conjunction with a national solar tour organized by the American Solar Energy Association.

John Livermore's green Gloucester home (

NESEA has a page on its site that lists Massachusetts venues that are participating, and there are some interesting names on the list. People pay to hear some of these folks at green building conferences, and here they are opening their homes at no charge to anyone interested.

Among them:
Betsy Pettit of Concord is an architect, designer, and president of Building Science Corp. of Westford. I've attended an all-day, intensely informative presentation of her company's techniques at NESEA’s annual conference more than once, and might do it again; it's so full of information that I am certain I could still get plenty more out of it.

John Livermore of Gloucester is a builder and consultant who has deep-energy-retroffited his 1973 Garrison Colonial. He used Larsen trusses and other techniques with a goal of reducing the house's carbon footprint, using off-the-shelf materials with a budget of about $50,000.
Landscape historian Marie Stella's home in Ashfield is an impressive renovation/addition that earned the first LEED platinum rating in Western Mass. Among many features, its oak floors were taken from trees felled for the building's footprint and milled a mile away, and it has a standing-seam metal roof that will harvest rainwater for the gardens. The stonework in the patio is breathtaking, too.

I would love to see the first two homes as well, but the thing is, you could go to any home on the list and be enlightened, enriched, and entertained. It's a great way to spend a day.

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Massachusetts Audubon’s wildlife hotline has been inundated with one question from hundreds of anxious residents the last month: Where are the birds?

(Pam Berry/Globe photo)

Homeowners’ normally busy bird feeders are missing cardinals, titmice, chickadees and other feathery species this fall. And people on the hotline say they are not hearing as many bird songs.

“I keep hearing 'I’ve been feeding the birds for thirty years and this never has happened,' " said naturalist Linda Cocca, who has been manning the hotline for about 20 years.

The answer, for once, is good news: The birds simply aren’t hungry.

The wet, soggy spring and early summer created perfect conditions for what now is an abundance of natural food such as seeds and berries that offer birds more nutrients than bird feeder food.

“They may not like the store-bought offering as much,’’ Cocca said.

Meanwhile, autumns tend to be filled with fewer songs because the birds are not trying to find a mate or fighting for territory. But when people don’t see the birds – and then don’t hear them – panic ensues. Cocca remembers a similar early summer weather pattern about five years ago that sparked a scare among backyard birders.

Of course, some bird species are in trouble from changing temperatures brought on by global warming to housing developments gobbling up their living space.

But the missing birds are just probably contently eating a hearty feast before the long descent into winter.

And Cocca says don’t take down your birdfeeder just yet. Most natural food will be all but gone by November. Expect some visitors then.

If you have a wildlife question call the Massachusetts Audubon hotline at 781.259.2151

By James Smith, Globe Staff

Douglas Foy, the longtime environmental campaigner and former Massachusetts cabinet secretary, is being awarded an honorary “Officer of the Order of the British Empire.”

The British consulate in Boston said today that Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, will confer the honor on Wednesday at his Washington residence, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II. The award recognizes Foy’s “achievements as an advocate and entrepreneur in the practice of environmentally sustainable enterprises” as well as his years of volunteer work helping select winners of the British Marshall scholarships.

For 25 years, Foy was president of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England-wide organization of scientists and lawyers who work to protect the environment. He served under Governor Mitt Romney for three years as a “supersecretary” in charge of development, coordinating the work of several agencies including environment, transportation and housing. He resigned in 2006, and now works with Serrafix, a Boston-based energy-efficiency firm.

The British government said Foy was being honored in part for his many years as chairman of the regional selection committee for the Marshall Scholarship. That prestigious program, funded by the British government, awards 40 scholarships a year to American students to study in the United Kingdom for two years. The scholarship was created after World War II to honor American contributions to rebuilding Europe, not least through the Marshall Plan.

The rank of officer of the Order of the British Empire is one of five levels of honorary awards to foreign nationals. The rank is just below the level of honorary knighthood, which was awarded earlier this year to Senator Edward Kennedy, a few months before his death.

Foy, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School and a former Olympic rower, has received a number of honors for his environmental work, including the President’s Environmental and Conservation Challenge Award in 1992 and the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service in 2006.

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

The US Environmental Protection Agency is recommending that owners of older buildings – including schools – test brittle, aging masonry and window caulking for high levels of likely cancer-causing chemicals.

The recommendations are targeted at thousands of buildings constructed or renovated between 1950 and 1978, when polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned. Several Massachusetts schools and colleges have recently found high levels of PCBs in caulking.

Scott Richards, director of Facilities at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass. stands in front of one of many buildings on campus that were built in the 1970s with caulk high in PCBs (Stephen Rose for The Boston Globe)

The federal agency said the danger to schoolchildren is unknown but “we’re concerned about the potential risks associated with exposure to these PCBs and we’re recommending practical, common sense steps to reduce this exposure as we improve our understanding of the science,’’ said EPA administrator Lisa. P. Jackson.

The oily PCBs gained infamy for their use in electrical transformers that are present at many of the nation’s filthiest industrial sites. But the oily chemicals were also mixed into caulking to make it rubbery when it was applied to interior and exterior windows, doors and bricks, and used in industrial paints and adhesives to glue everything from tile flooring to cabinets.

As caulking ages, public health researchers have found, they can break down into particles and vapors containing small amounts of PCBs, which can fall to the ground, dust windowsills, and infiltrate a building’s ventilation system. This spring, Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield voluntarily tested its caulking and discovered high levels of PCBs on exterior window and construction joints of several buildings. After discovering high levels of PCBs, New Bedford High School this summer removed adhesives, paint and foam in two classrooms and a teacher’s room and paint on a closet wall.

EPA officials said there was no cause for alarm, yet said building owners should test caulking if it is brittle, cracking or deteriorating or if PCB air levels exceed EPA suggested public health levels. They also recommended building owners do the following: Clean air ducts, improve ventilation by opening windows, clean rooms frequently to reduce dust, use vacuums with high efficiency particulate air filters, wash hands with soap and water often, particularly before eating and drinking.

PCB in caulking is an emerging issue in the country and few schools or industrial buildings, where the caulking was used the most, have been tested.

While the EPA now recommends testing for PCBs, it is not required. Yet the agency requires caulking or other material to be removed if it contains levels about 50 parts per million. In Massachusetts, some caulking has been found at 5,000 parts per million or more. In New York, some caulking was found to contain 200,000 parts per million.

Many school administrators in New England, faced with dwindling budgets, acknowledged privately to the Globe in recent months they avoid testing to avoid the financial burden. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – or more – to get rid of the PCBs.

“This is a good start,’’ said Robert Herrick, senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2004, he tested 24 buildings in Greater Boston that a bricklayer identified as likely candidates for PCB contamination. Eight contained caulking with PCB levels about 50 parts per million.

“But it doesn’t deal with the underlying reality that if you follow the guidance and test for it, you have to remove it. School districts are so financially strapped teachers are forced to bring in their own classroom supplies," said Herrick. He said an answer would be to pass a federal bill now pending to give schools low-interest loans and grants to scrub PCBs from their school.

The health danger caused by the release of PCBs from caulking remains unclear. This family of chemicals includes more than 200 compounds, and they vary in how they affect people. An emerging body of research in laboratory animals suggests the PCBs that can be released from caulking - lighter in weight and less studied than the ones shown to cause cancer - might cause developmental and neurological problems, but the findings are not definitive.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Earlier this month, federal and state biologists met at an abandoned copper mine in Vermont for an annual survey of bats. In previous years they counted at least 900 in a sample. This year, they caught one.

Little brown bat at Greeley Mine, Vermont, with white-nose syndrome in March 2009 (Marvin Moriarty/USFWS)

The reduction is due to a deadly bat illness called white nose syndrome that is decimating bat populations in the Northeast. And federal officials are getting more coordinated to combat it. Earlier this month the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast Regional Director Marvin Moriarty announced a draft national response plan to better control the spread, minimize the risk and coordinate research and public outreach efforts for the fast-spreading illness.

Researchers have been stunned how quickly the lethal syndrome has spread ever since bats with a fuzzy white fungus on their bodies were first photographed in February 2006 near Albany. Since then, hundreds of thousand of hibernating bats are estimated to have died – if not more – from the illness from Vermont to Virginia. Affected bats can be emaciated and act erratically, flying around during daylight hours in the winter before dying.

Scientists are honing in on the fungus, a cold-loving variety, as a possible cause. Yet bats are dying in such numbers – mortality is higher than 90 percent in some caves and mines – they are deeply concerned about losing too many before a cause or solution can be found.
While several species of bats are affected, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate the population of endangered Indiana bats in the Service's Northeast Region dropped 30 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to preliminary estimates from the 2009 count of Indiana bats. The Northeast Region has 12 to 13 percent of the Indiana bat population.

The plan, which will go up for public review this winter, will put in place a more formal framework for scientists sharing research and information with each other, educating the public, diagnosing bats, managing the illness and monitoring it. While scores of researchers are working on the projects, white nose has spread so quickly scientists say they need a more coordinated approach.

An environmental group who has been calling for a more organized and formal response said yesterday they were pleased with the effort – but much will be needed to save the bats.
“Getting a plan written is an enormous step forward. Next it has to be implemented, and it needs money. Otherwise, it’ll just be a way to pass time as the bats disappear,’’ said Mollie Matteson, a wildlife biologist and conservation advocate in the Center for Biological Diversity’s Northeast office.

When gas prices were really high, we all drove less.

But are you getting behind the wheel again?

Today, Environment Massachusetts, an advocacy group, released a new report showing that Massachusetts residents’ reliance on public transportation in 2008 increased by three percent over 2007 levels.

This? (Globe photo)

We all know that volatile fuel prices and the recession drove that trend. But in the end, Bay state residents did drive 2.8 million fewer miles in 2008 than in 2007 – a five percent decrease.

The report uses the statistics to underscore the enormous greenhouse gas reductions that comes from driving fewer miles: Public transportation in 2008 reduced global warming pollution in Massachusetts by 1.4 million tons, according to Elizabeth Cerkez of Environment Massachusetts.

This? (Globe photo)

But a quick glance at recent MBTA statistics shows that T ridership is no longer as high as it was in 2008. And several stories in the media have noted that drivers are getting behind the wheel again, even as gas prices remain moderately high. According an Associated Press story today, gas prices are hovering around $2.54 a gallon - 8.6 cents below levels of a month ago and $1.186 down from year-ago levels.

So are you back on the road? Is it in a Prius? Are you on a bike? How have the events of the last year changed your transportation habits?

By Beth Daley, GLobe Staff

If you haven’t yet become worried about our oceans, you should be. Rising sea levels, pollution, acidification, crowded seas, overfishing – the ¾ of the world covered in water has got some major challenges.

Now you can have a say in fixing it. Last week, the Obama Administration released the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Interim Report to manage and protect the nation’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. The task force integrates the work on coasts and oceans of all 24 agencies that work on oceans.

A scientist studies the Gulf of Maine (Dina Rudick/Globe photo)

Thursday, the only East Coast public hearing on the draft report will be held at the Convention Center in Providence from 4 to 7 p.m. A 30-day comment period on it will be up next month.

The report includes a proposal for a new national policy to examine environmental sustainability, human health, climate change, social justice and national prosperity when managing the oceans. It also would name the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Science and Technology Policy would lead an interagency national Ocean Council to coordinate ocean issues across different agencies.

It also prioritizes nine categories for action, including ecosystem-based management, regional ecosystem protection and better observing system to help manage the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

Here is an AP story on the task force announcement: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_ocean_policy

By Beth Daley
GLOBE STAFF

Matinicus Rock, an island off mid-coast Maine, already has the distinction of being Maine’s most diverse seabird nesting island.

The young Manx shearwater (US Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

Still, researchers got a huge surprise earlier this month when they found a young Manx shearwater bird on the island - the first time the species is known to have reached an age old enough to fly in the United States.

Researchers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Audubon discovered the chick in a relatively shallow burrow – one of six on island. At first, they thought it an adult: shearwaters have been observed on the island, part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, for twelve years.

But on closer examination, they found remnant patches of fluffy light gray down around the legs that gave them proof it was a nearly fledged chick.

"This is what we all work and hope for;” said Stephen Kress, director of Audubon's Seabird Restoration Program.

The team almost missed the discovery. It takes 120 days for a pair of shearwaters to hatch and raise a chick until it's old enough to fly. If researchers arrived a few days later, they may never have found evidence the chick hatched on the island, 26 miles off Rockland.

The birds, with their awfully cute scientific name Puffinus puffinus, nest throughout the eastern North Atlantic, especially in Great Britain. Related to the albatross, the crow-sized birds have a wingspan of nearly three feet and are named because they fly low over the water. Great Britain studies suggest they may live 56 years and travel over five million miles.

The birds have visited the western North Atlantic since the 1950s and their breeding was first confirmed in 1973 when a pair produced a chick on Penikese Island in Buzzards Bay but it was not clear what happened to the chick. While another breeding pair was confirmed on an island in Newfoundland, there were only tantilizing clues the bird was nesting in the U.S.: A shearwater was seen on the 22-acre Matinicus Rock in 1997 and a nesting burrow was found the next year. An egg was even found in 2005 in the burrow but it never hatched. In 2006 and 2007, up to 19 Manx shearwaters were seen around the island and burrows were found in 2008. The young shearwater was found in one of the burrows.

It’s the curse of pesticides: They kill more than just pests. Yesterday, I wrote a story about how beekeepers in the Worcester area are concerned over plans to use a common grub killer to beat back a tree beetle infestation because it is toxic to bees.

A more natural way to control termites? (Globe file photo)

But at Northeastern University, a team of researchers are meeting success with a more natural form of critter control.

Rebeca Rosengaus, an associate professor of biology along with former Northeastern postdoctoral fellow Mark Bulmer and a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have figured out a way to potentially control termites with using nothing more than a type of sugar molecule.

Here’s how: The researchers knew that a tropical termite species can survive despite living in bacteria and fungus ridden nests. It turns out, the scientists discovered, the termite saliva and fecal matter contain a protein that destroys those bacteria and fungi.

But if researchers fed termites a glucose derivative, known as GDL, it inhibited the fungus-fighting proteins. Termites fed GDL in a lab died five days after being exposed to a fungus while 70 percent of those not fed GDL and exposed were still alive 12 days later. Their work was reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

One day, such an approach could be used to combat the $30 billion in damages that termites cause to homes, businesses and crops each year. Today, termites are often fought with chemicals that can spread to waterways and into living organisms. Rosengaus will continue experimenting with the molecule, especially in urban areas where termites are a particular problem.

“We’re far away from saying this is the future of pest control,’’ she said. “But it seems a very appealing alternative strategy.”

By Beth Daley

Almost a decade ago, New England Aquarium scientist Gregory S. Stone dove in the shimmering waters around the remote eight-atoll Phoenix Island chain between Hawaii and Australia and discovered a slice of ocean so untouched and lush he made it a life cause. Expansive coral reefs there, unlike a third of the world’s reefs facing extinction from climate change, disease, fishing boats and heavy tourism, looked much as scientists' expected they did 1,000 years ago.

Fish passing over the Nikumaroro reef (NEAQ photo/Greg Stone)

Last year, the Republic of Kiribati – of which the atolls and two submerged reefs are part of - more than doubled the original size of a protected area to create the world’s largest marine conservation area. Scientists have found more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of reef fish in the California-sized swath. The area includes underwater mountains and other deep-sea habitat and is bigger than the Great Barrier Reef. It’s been nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The arrangement was unique, in large part because Kiribati, with less than 100,000 residents, makes much of its income by selling licensing fees to foreign fleets from the U.S., Korea and other countries. But Kiribati now earns back that revenue because of an endowment fund set up by Conservation International.

Now, Stone is back in the Phoenix Islands for the first time in seven years – and blogging about it. He and fellow New England Aquarium scientist, Randi J. Rotjan are chronicling how the coral reefs, aquatic life, and island nation are handling global climate change and other environmental changes. Through Sept. 20, the team will look at disease, reproduction, genetics and bacterial communities on coral and take a census of the marine life there. And they will be joined by Brian Skerry, the photographer known for his National Geographic Magazine spreads who is the Aquarium’s new Explorer in Residence.

Today, Stone posted the first dive pix as they hit their research site at Nikumaroro, one of the chain’s atolls. The whole expedition team will be blogging about it regularly. It’s rare you get such a close up look into such a remote place. Link is here.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

The healthcare debate is getting most of the ink lately, but the battle over climate legislation is bound to compete with three months to go before almost 200 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out the next international treaty on reducing greenhouse gases.

Winterizing a home in Boston to save energy. (Dina Rudick/Boston Globe)

Yesterday, the U.S. top negotiator urged Congress to act quickly to bridge a divide between developed and less developed countries. Todd Stern, the State Department's special envoy for climate change, told a House panel that less developed countries feared their economic growth would be hamstrung with caps on carbon dioxide emissions – and needed commitments from developed countries before they signed onto meaningful reductions. See an AP story here on it and Bloomberg here.

Locally, climate groups are trying to do their part to get legislation passed – including Environment Massachusetts which is highlighting a new report by The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy that says Massachusetts’ households would save an average of $274 per year and15,200 sustainable jobs would be created in the state over the next decade if the Senate did what the U.S. House narrowly did in June and passed a version of The American Clean Energy and Security Act. If enacted, the Act would reduce annual carbon emissions by 8 million tons in Massachusetts by 2020, the report.

The efficiency provisions, the report says, would remove the equivalent of 1,454 million cars from the road for a year.

Still, Environment Massachusetts – along with the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships - says the Senate has an opportunity to bump up the environmental benefits from the plan in part by requiring utility companies to reduce energy usage by at least 10 percent by providing incentives to help customers make their homes and businesses more energy efficient. The House version included a five percent requirement with an optional three percent increase.

“By supporting stronger energy efficiency components as part of energy and climate legislation, our senators can bring big economic results when their constituents need them most.” Said Ben Wright, global warming advocate for Environment Massachusetts.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

What should motivate you to reduce your energy use?

By now, we’ve heard the reasons over and over again: You can save money and protecting the environment is simply the right thing to do.

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But that doesn’t always cut it in the real world. The financial savings from being more energy efficient are sometimes too small to motivate people to change behavior and there isn’t often a visual benefit to the environment from turning off the dryer and hanging your laundry on a clothesline.

But a Harvard master’s student, MIT research fellow and energy consultant think they have a motivating idea: Rivalry. Taking an idea from a successful MIT effort that pits dorms against each other to see which one can save the most energy, the group is hoping to start a series of online community contests that capitalizes on our innate competitive streaks.

The group has started a facebook group here to get a competition going and solicit ideas and comments. Communities who win competitions could pocket their savings – or donate it to a worthy cause.

“We are really tapping into human behavior,’’ said Pedzi Makumbe, of MIT, who is launching the idea with Ilana Greene, a Harvard student and Attila Forruchi, an energy consultant. “For some people, the savings would be a few dollars a month and (you) can’t even buy a beer with that. But let’s say…I’m really passionate about breast cancer and my energy change will go toward funding it. That may make me much more motivated,” Makumbe said.

The group hopes to hold competitions that last a minimum of three months to let behavioral changes take hold in people, whether it’s turning the dishwasher on at night when electricity is often less expensive or putting the computer on sleep mode after every use.

Non-profits could use the model to promote energy efficiency. Or, the group says, utilities could use it to meet regulatory goals for energy efficiency. Right now, Forruchi says, utilities tend to provide energy savings to customers through rebates for more energy efficient appliances or through home audits to point out easy ways to conserve. But the effort is expensive and has been criticized for not reaching some lower-income populations. Also, when incentives or rebates disappear, people often revert back to their original behavior.

Competition, the group says, can change all that.

“It takes a boring, mundane topic and turns it into a social cause,’’ said Greene.

By Beth Daley
Globe Staff

Having fish for dinner tonight? Chances are fifty-fifty it came from a farm.

A new online report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that aquaculture is expected to hit a landmark by the end of this year - supplying half of the total fish and shellfish people eat in the world.

Salmon being fed at a Maine Fish farm (file photo/AP)

But that growth in aquaculture is placing pressure on wild fish stocks because farmed fish are often fed less expensive wild fishmeal and fish oil to help them grow faster and become more flavorful. While the industry has worked hard to reduce the amount of fishmeal they use per fish, there is so much more farming going on, aquaculture is increasingly taking a larger piece of the fishmeal and fish oil produced around the world.

The international study, led by Rosamond L. Naylor of Stanford University examined aquaculture trends in several species. Vegetarian species, such as Chinese carp and tilapia began being fed more fishmeal in the 1990s to increase yields. That changed between 1995 and 2007 when farmers reduced the share of fishmeal in carp diets by 50 percent and in tilapia diets by nearly two-thirds. Still, in 2007, those fish farms together consumed more than 12 million metric tons of fishmeal.

“Even the small amounts of fishmeal used to raise vegetarian fish add up to a lot on a global scale,’’ said Naylor.

One of aquaculture’s largest consumers of wild fish is salmon farms, where up to five pounds of wild fish is used to produce one pound of salmon. Salmon is one of the most popular farmed fish in the world, in large part because they contain fatty acids that can combat heart disease.

The researchers said a four percent reduction in fish oil fed to salmon would translate into needing only about four pounds – not five – to produce a pound of salmon. The scientists also pointed to other ways to feed fish, such as using protein from grain and extracting fatty acids from single-cell microorganisms and genetically modified land plants.

Julie Silas an Oakland, California resident and parent of two daughters and director of Health Care Projects for the Healthy Building Network sent a series of emails to Sigg two years ago attempting to find out if the bottles contained BPA. Here is the exchange as she sent to me. I have made a call to Sigg for a response.

1. Von: Julie Silas [mailto:jlsilas@sbcglobal.net]
Gesendet: Samstag, 17. März 2007 18:59
An: Postmaster
Betreff: Sigg bottle liner
Wichtigkeit: Hoch

Please advise as soon as possible whether the SIGG bottle inner liner contains bisphenol A (BPA). Your website does not say BPA-free and although the liner polymer is proprietary, you really should disclose whether it contains BPA or not. My two young daughters and all their friends use them and I need to know if they contain BPA. If they do not, I will buy more and recommend all my friends do the same.

Please advise as quickly as possible!

Julie Silas

2. From: Postmaster
To: Julie Silas
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 5:05 AM
Subject: AW: Sigg bottle liner

pls see attachement. (This was a general form letter about Sigg bottles)

3. Von: Julie Silas [mailto:jlsilas@sbcglobal.net]
Gesendet: Montag, 19. März 2007 16:22
An: Postmaster
Betreff: Re: Sigg bottle liner

Thank you - I recognize from previous reports from your company that older SIGG bottles did have BPA in the liner and that you switched out two years ago - can you please send me serial numbers of the ones that are okay, as we have older bottles that I am concerned about.

Thank you - Julie Silas

4. From: Steve Wasik
To: jlsilas@sbcglobal.net
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 11:25 AM
Subject: FW: Sigg bottle liner

Hello Ms Silas,

This message was forwarded on to me from our Customer Service in Switzerland.
SIGG has been around for 99 years and I’ve only been with them for a little over 1 year.
I am not aware of any major changes to our liner in the last 2 years as you mention – I’d be interested in seeing the reports you are referring to.

While the ingredients of the SIGG liner are proprietary, I can tell you that our bottles are tested frequently in Quality Control as well as in independent laboratories. In all the tests, SIGG bottles show no migration of chemicals, no trace of BPA. SIGGs are safe and I believe are the best reusable water bottles on the market.

The latest certification of the SIGG bottle and liner took place at the Nehring Institute in Germany.
See attached.

I hope this answers your concerns.
Best wishes,
Steve

5. To: Steve Wasik
Subject: Re: Sigg bottle liner

Thank you - my question was not about migration of BPA, the question was whether BPA is used in the liner. No one seems to respond to that - is there any information you can provide?

Thank you - Julie Silas

6. From: Steve Wasik
To: 'Julie Silas'
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 11:49 AM
Subject: RE: Sigg bottle liner

Ms Silas,

It’s a proprietary formula – I’ve been told best on earth – exclusively manufactured for SIGG bottles. It is a competitive advantage for SIGG and therefore the ingredients are kept confidential.

But isn’t the real issue to ensure that what you and your family are drinking is free of any chemicals. I know the issues surrounding polycarbonate #7 (Lexan) have to do with the problems these containers have with migration of the materials, chemicals. On the other hand, numerous research studies show SIGGs are leach-free.

I hope this answers your concerns.
Best,
Steve

7. From: Julie Silas
To: Steve Wasik
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: Sigg bottle liner

From my point of view, disclosing of whether the contents include BPA should not be proprietary - unless it's in the bottle liner. If it's not, why wouldn't you all tell customers? By saying it is free of BPA does not disclose what it does contain... if you don't have BPA, you should be announcing it to the world. Meanwhile, I am sure you are well aware that the issue is not just in polycarbonate bottles, but in the liners of canned food (and the liners of bottles).

I can only presume that SIGG bottles have BPA based on the fact that the company does not disclose that the product is BPA-free (you all rely on the fact that it does not leach, which isn't the question). The science on BPA is very strong re: animal studies. We are just learning about it - what we do know is that the effects might be transgenerational, which means that exposures now might affect grandchildren in future years. It is not worth the risk for me and my daughters. While you all might have tests showing that it does not leach, that does not make me feel comfortable purchasing SIGG that may contain BPA, but that you all refuse to disclose. We know it's bad if it leaches, that doesn't mean it is not bad if it stays in the liner.

I'm disappointed that you all would value proprietary concerns over children's health.

Julie Silas

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

Even I, an environmental reporter who should know better, fell victim to the Hello Kitty Sigg bottle.

I’ve written a lot in the last two years on the growing concern over Bisphenol A used in baby bottles, sippy cups and canned goods that can leach and be ingested. Research on laboratory animals shows that low levels of BPA might cause developmental problems in fetuses and young children.

I tried to reduce my family’s use of canned foods, which uses BPA to prevent corrosion. I threw out the hand-me-down scratched sippy cups my friends bequeathed to me for my three-year-old.

And I bought an aluminum Sigg bottle for my daughter. I should have known better.

In April 2008 during an online Globe chat with a BPA expert, a reader asked if the Sigg bottles were safe. Mia Davis of Clean Water Action warned readers then she didn’t know. Because aluminum has been linked to health problems, she noted, aluminum cans are sometimes coated with a BPA resin. She said she had asked Sigg but all they told her was their resin did not leach BPA.

That didn’t answer her question. She asked again. They said it was proprietary information. (click here for one parent's exchange with Sigg about the issue.)

Now we know.

Sigg came out last month and acknowledged that its resin had “trace amounts” of BPA in bottles made before August 2008. An Associated Press story notes the company knew about it since 2006. Davis says she is sure BPA is leaching from Sigg bottles – it leaches from everything else.

I don’t think I, or my daughter, are going to be harmed by those Sigg bottles. But any parent – even those who work at Sigg - would want to know if a product they were drinking from contained such a controversial chemical. I have an email and call into the company for a response which I'll post.

If you are going to bill yourself as an eco-friendly company, be eco-friendly. And that includes being straightforward. Otherwise you’ll lose customers.

And you’ve lost this one.

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff

You probably didn’t notice it sitting on the beach this June and early July but tides in New England were as much as a foot higher than predicted.

The unusual phenomena, brought on by a rare combination of persistent Northeast winds and a weakened ocean current, highlights a growing body of research by scientists about sea level variation from one region to another. Such differences are important to understand as sea levels rise from warming ocean waters and melting glaciers.

Chatham homes succumbing to the sea in early summer. (Globe photo/Vincent DeWitt)

“It averaged six inches higher (in the Boston area) during the peak in early July and was as much as a foot higher in Cape Cod,’’ said Mike Szabados, director of NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services. “The ocean is dynamic and it’s not uncommon to have anomalies….What made this event unique was its breadth, intensity and duration.”

NOAA scientists observed water levels six inches to two feet higher from Maine to Florida, with the greatest change in sea level – up to two feet – recorded in Baltimore and other Mid-Atlantic areas.

After analyzing data from tide stations and buoys from Maine to Florida, the scientists found that a weakening of an oceanic current that feeds into the Gulf Stream along with steady Northeast winds contributed to the tides. The weakening was greatest in the Mid-Atlantic, which is why tides were highest there.

Amplifying the tides – and leading to minor flooding in some areas - was a perigean spring tide, the time during the spring tide when the moon is closest to the earth and its gravitational pull raises water levels. While the tides were strong, they still pale in comparison to what occurs during a Northeaster.

The scientists say much more work needs to be done to truly understand what is driving geographical changes in tides.

“The report is a good first assessment,” said NOAA Oceanographer William Sweet. But, he added “further analysis is needed to fully understand what is driving the patterns we observed.”

For the full report go to
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/EastCoastSeaLevelAnomaly_2009.pdf