Originally Posted By: Grouch
I wonder if it would be possible to extract all of the BPA by boiling the container for an extended amount of time.

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.