An ubiquitous ingredient in plastics has been linked to diabetes and heart disease in adults, according to a study being released today, heightening concerns about the widespread use of the chemical BPA. Otherwise known as Bisphenol-A, BPA is the chemical once studied as a synthetic form of estrogen, but more recently known to leach out of some plastic water bottles and baby bottles, and that is found in all kinds of plastic products.

Yet another reason to avoid some plastics... Link to full story. I'll stick to my SS bottles.

It's good that you pointed this out but prior negative reports on BPA is the reason that there is now a BPA-free version of Nalgene bottles. While the study may be new, it isn't the first suggestion that BPA is bad for us and it's the reason that I've decided to switch to stainless steel.

The BPA you get from Nalgene bottles is proabably only a small fraction of what is out there in food container linings etc. The last line of the article hits the nail on the head.

"Unfortunately, in this country, I don't think BPAs in food containers pose a fraction of the threat to heart health as most of the food products that they contain," said Dr. Daniel Edmundowicz, director of Cardiovascular Medicine at UPMC Passavant Hospital in Pittsburg, Pa.

"Said another way -- I think the BPAs in a container of butter pose less risk than than butter itself," Edmundowicz said.

The report is probably BS.

I think the take-away quote from the article is:
"This type of research is valuable to point to potential toxins in the environment -- only further studies will confirm if this is a concern or not," said Dr. Gordon Ewy, chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Ariz."

One such test, even a large and well designed one, is not the final word. If it makes you feel better to work on avoiding such plastics then your free to do so. If this means fewer people use bottled water it would be a good thing even if this link was shown to be nonexistent.

I would point out that Diabetes was around long before these plastics and certainly normal exposure doesn't automatically mean your afflicted. It may, to some unknown degree, increase your risk but the effect is, at worse, clearly on the margins.

I was trying to pin-point my problems :P

I don't wear tinfoil hats nor do I hug trees , but the bottom line is: Disposable plastic bottles are most definitely bad for our environment & quite possibly bad for our health. So why contribute more trash to our landfills?? And why consume more chemicals into our bodies, when there are better alternatives out there?

Just for fun, try googling for an MSDS for Stainless Steel:
...
II. HAZARDOUS INGREDIENTS
Ingredient CAS # Form OSHA/PEL (mg/m3) ACGIH/TLV (mg/m3)
Aluminum 7429-90-5 Dust, fumes - 10.00, 5.00
Carbon 1333-86-4 As carbon black 3.50 3.50
Chromium 7440-47-3 1.00 .50
Cobalt 7440-48-4 .10 .10
Copper 7440-50-8 Dust, fumes 1.00, .10 1.00, .20
Iron 1309-37-1 PEL-iron, oxide fumes, TLV-as Fe 10.00 5.00
Manganese 7439-96-5 Dust, fumes 5.00, -- 5.00, 1.00
Molybdenum 7439-98-7 Insoluble compound 15.00 10.00
Nickel 7440-02-0 1.00 1.00
Niobium 7440-03-1 5.00 5.00
Phosphor 7723-14-0 Yellow .10 .10
Silicon 7440-21-3 Respirable dust -- 5.00
Sulfur 7446-09-5 As sulfur dioxide -- 5.00
Tin 7440-31-5 2.00 2.00
Titanium 13463-67-7 As titanium dioxide 15.00 5.00
Tungsten 7440-33-7 Insoluble compound -- 5.00
Vanadium 1314-62-1 Dust, fumes (as vanadium pentoxide) .50, .10 .05, .05
...
V. HEALTH HAZARD INFORMATION
Acute Effects: Welding and high temperature cutting may produce dust and fumes. Short-term exposure may cause nausea, fever, irritation of eyes, nose, throat, skin; metallic taste.
Chronic Effects: Long-term exposure to welding fumes, gases or dust may result in skin sensitization, neurological damage and respiratory disease.
Effects of Exposure:
Inhalation: Inhalation of excessive fume or dust concentrations may result in respiratory tract irritation.
Eyes: Mechanical irritation may result from an accumulation of dust particles in the eye.
Skin: Some skin irritation may result form exposure to dust.
Ingestion: Some constituents may be harmful if swallowed.
Symptoms of Exposure: Metallic taste, fever, loss of consciousness due to welding gases.
...
Carcinogenicity: Chromium, nickel and chromium-cobalt alloys have been identified by the international agency for research on cancer as potential cancer-causing agents.
...

I don't know. But I do think that something that we eat, breathe, drink (or drink from) is the cause of the high, and getting higher, rate of autism in our country. It could be something as simple as plastic bottles...

One news report on BPA quoted someone from the FDA that said one thing people can do to lower their exposure is to avoid warming food in containers that contain BPA because heat helps to release the chemical. I wonder if it would be possible to extract all of the BPA by boiling the container for an extended amount of time. I realize that there would then be BPA in the resulting vapor but let's put that aside for now and assume that we can deal with that issue.

If you extracted all the BPA, the container would disintegrate. BPA is a constituent that helps keep the container molecularly bound.

No. Polycarbonate is a polymer, which means that it's basically a repeating chain of smaller chemical compounds. In this case, that smaller compound is BPA so you can't just boil it away because that's what the bottle is essentially made of. Put another way, that Nalgene bottle in your hand is basically one big hunk of BPA.

Heating polycarbonate just makes it break down faster and leech into any water or food next to it. So does physical damage like being knocked around or scratched. The age of the polycarbonate also affects the leeching rate. Actually, those of you who have been using the same Nalgene for many, many years, it's likely that it is leeching far more BPA than a brand new bottle--if you're worried about such things.

Thanks for the explanations, benjammin and Arney. I didn't realize that BPA was the main ingredient.

My wonder is long term sotrage bottles, say one of those big relaince jugs. Lets say _IF_ they use BPA and _IF_ BPA does in fact turn out to be harmful our stores water sits a long time in jugs so it has a long time to leach into the water.

Along those same lines, I wonder if residual BPA can be removed by our filters.

Those containers aren't made of polycarbonate. They're high density polyethylene (HDPE), that translucent, somewhat soft plastic that they make things like bicycle water bottles out of. HDPE is generally considered safe.

Not sure about this, but one article indicated that the bpa plastics were labeled on the bottom as recycling #7. Most of the disposable plastic bottles I have seen are labeled #1. Recycling the disposables as replacements for bpa-bearing vessels may actually be a solution to the BPA problem.

Disposable plastic containers are indeed a blight on the world. BPA might be a blight on the world. But they seem to be different blights. The stainless steel bottles are fine, but spendy, which represents a different bottom line.

I do wear tinfoil hats, occasionally.

Better check to make sure that the tinfoil contains nothing harmful.

For long term water storage, I've always preferred glass or ceramic jugs.

Actually, it's aluminum foil, and aluminum has been linked to Alzheimers. Too, it contains me, and I have been linked to all kinds of harmful foolishness. Alzheimers? Bah, I laugh at...something...can't remember what...

It's interesting (and OFTEN simple) that "moms" groups worldwide have sometimes had good success (after very much grief, sorrow and tragedy). Look online when there's time : search terms like moms "ANDI" milk and dairy "3 weeks" and so on... it may take a while and different searches because they are either sensored(sic) or overwhelmed with political 'spin' financed sites/ pages.
Think "survival!" (like the most of this site) and be prepared and avoid stepping on the cottonmouths and rattlers when you can, and your family !

Just make sure the shiny side is 'out'.

There are three paragraphs that really stick out. In short, don't panic.



I think we need a new survival skill: Information purification. Or, how to filter all the bad stuff out of the information we're consuming.

Well said.

You guys know this an 8 year old necro thread you are replying to right?