Here's some more hype:
http://www.radicalcongruency.com/20050405-are-nalgene-bottles-unsafe-1 Are reusable water bottles dangerous?
[quoting from this site]
I decided just to re-use the flimsy plastic water bottles for as long as I could. I was happy with this solution for quite some time, until I learned the horrible truth: HARMFUL BACTERIA! Yes, with each refreshing sip I was backwashing germs into my water and providing them with a warm, wet place to grow.
So I did what any bacteria-fearing primate would do and bought a nice, reusable Nalgene bottle. Boy oh boy, nothing makes you look or feel more like a tree-hugging, mushroom hunting nature girl than one of those bright, hard plastic bottles! Until it comes out that Nalgene gives you BRAIN DAMAGE! Yes, Bisphenol A, used to make Nalgene bottles and other hard plastic projects, apparently seeps into the body and can, in certain doses, mess with the function of the brain. (I�m paraphrasing/exaggerating and not everybody agrees, so look it up.) I could almost dismiss the fear as environmentalist fear mongering, but it turns out that California legislators take the threat seriously enough to consider banning it in children�s products.
Wow, lots of big allegations there, and since BoingBoing is read by like 40,000 people a day, I thought I’d better chime in. “In certain doses” is an important phrase, but one that’s easy to gloss over.
First, I use a Nalgene bottle every day, and have since about 2000. I had my first bottle for about three years, but replaced it when a friend who is completing her Ph.D. in biology said that she attended a seminar on endocrine disruptors, and that an old Nalgene can leach chemicals that mess with hormones such as estrogen, and estrogen-like substances in the environment. She said that it’s especially important to not put a Nalgene bottle in the dishwasher, since the ultra-hot water can cause the polycarbonate to break down and leach Bisphenol A (if I remember correctly - this is the chemical the above links reference, so I’m assuming she was talking about the same chemical). Finally, she said you should replace your bottle around the time the print wears off the outside, which prompted me to adopt a new bottle, since mine had long since become bare.
So what’s the deal on Bisphenol A? This industry group says Bisphenol A leaches from polycarbonate, but at an absurdly low rate:
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a key building block of polycarbonate plastic. In recent years a number of researchers from government agencies, academia and industry worldwide have studied the potential for low levels of BPA to migrate from polycarbonate products into foods and beverages. These studies consistently show that the potential migration of BPA into food is extremely low, generally less than 5 parts per billion, under conditions typical for uses of polycarbonate products.
Using these results, the estimated dietary intake of BPA from polycarbonate is less than 0.0000125 milligrams per kilogram body weight per day. This level is more than 4000 times lower than the maximum acceptable or “reference” dose for BPA of 0.05 milligrams per kilogram body weight per day established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Stated another way, an average adult consumer would have to ingest more than 600 kilograms (about 1,300 pounds) of food and beverages in contact with polycarbonate every day for an entire lifetime to exceed the level of BPA that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set as safe. link
Numbers like that are subject to experimental dispute, and can sometimes be based on unrealistic extrapolation. The SF Gate article linked to above says:
But an author of one of the new studies, Thomas Zoeller, a thyroid endocrinologist and chairman of the University of Massachusetts’ biology department, said researchers had shown that humans were widely exposed to bisphenol A, a chemical that can disrupt animal hormone systems that affect the workings of the brain.
Further, it appears to accumulate at higher concentrations around the fetus — in the umbilical cord and the amniotic fluid — than in the mother’s blood, said Zoeller, a leading authority on fetal thyroid development. While it’s not clear what the affects are on humans, Zoeller and his colleagues published a study in the journal Endocrinology in February showing that, in lab animals, bisphenol A altered the ability of thyroid hormone to correctly regulate brain development.
In another study, expected in an upcoming issue of the journal Neuroscience, a University of Tokyo group found that bisphenol A inhibited the positive role of estrogen in enhancing neural connections in a part of the brain involved in the formation and retention of memory, the hippocampus. link
So I believe my friend who says that if you wear out your Nalgene bottle or abuse it, it’s going to leach endocrine disruptors. Sure, don’t let your baby eat old CDs (which are also made of polycarbonate). But this stuff about it giving you brain damage is bogus fearmongering.
As an aside, I think we’ve come to fear way too much in the US. I still want to die, some day, of something related to old age. I will not spend my days (however many are left) worrying about whether my water bottle is going to kill me. Sure, protect your family and all that. Feed them organic foods if you want. But don’t try to make every chemical in the world illegal in the state of California. Water is a chemical, after all - the word shouldn’t automatically make people afraid.
Coming soon: Part II - The bacterial culture I took from my Nalgene bottle (to include photos!)
Update:
BoingBoing now also links to this UA article, which has more on the Bisphenol A issue:
Studies done last year found popular Nalgene water bottles to be potentially toxic, but new research, done in part by a UA professor, suggests the bottles do not pose a risk.
A study done by the University of Missouri reported that a chemical called bisphenol-A seeps into water that is stored in polycarbonate plastic, the same kind used in Nalgene Lexan’s outdoor water bottles.
According to the study, published in the July 2003 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, detectable levels of BPA leaked into drinking water stored at room temperature.
Additional studies were conducted nationwide to find adverse effects of BPA, which is known to mimic the female hormone estrogen.
According to a Case Western Reserve University study, rats exposed to BPA developed aneuploidy, an abnormal loss or gain of chromosomes. The defect in humans can result in Down syndrome or cancer.
But Glenn Sipes, UA professor and department head of pharmacology, said the studies are misleading.
Sipes was a member of a research panel created by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis that studied how humans handle chemical compounds in comparison to the laboratory rats that are used for scientific research.
The purpose of the panel, which lasted two years, was to analyze recent scientific studies and find if humans handle compounds in a similar manner to rats, since rats are a common test species, Sipes said.
But Sipes said his research panel found the Nalgene studies should be interpreted with caution.
“Yes, you can report in literature that this happened or that happened,” said Sipes. “But these biological health effects did not translate into big issues of concern.”
Sipes said his panel found that humans metabolize the BPA more effectively than the rats that were used as test species. Humans also clear the chemical out of their bodies a few hours after ingestion, Sipes said.
So, basically, yes, there’s BPA in your water, but if you refill your bottle every day, there’s not much. “Detectable” doesn’t mean “a lot.” We can detect incredibly low concentrations of plenty of chemicals, and “chemical” is still not a bad word.