With the recent attention given to the potential health hazards related to polycarbonate plastic water bottles, it seemed only natural to switch to metal bottles, considered by many to be much safer.

Apparently the reassurance the metal is better may have given consumers a false sense of security as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has now issued a recall of several thousand metal bottles that may contain excessive levels of lead in the surface paint. The bottles, produced by Downeast Concepts and part of the Backyard and Beyond collection are of course marketed towards children, as are all products recently recalled because of potentially harmful amounts of lead. There's probably no need to mention which country these bottles were produced in, as you'd pretty much have to live under a rock to be unaware of where these toxic products are coming from these days.

The 18,000 bottles being recalled were sold in stores between February 2006 and February 2008. The CPSC is recommending that parents take away the bottles from kids and return them to the store purchased from.

If you need to find a replacement, we can't emphasize enough that SIGG bottles are a great option that have tested 0.0 per cent for leaching and are completely recyclable.

» Sun Journal