"What TV news covers is dictated by ratings, not importance, and sensational claims get better ratings than straightforward, mundane information, even if the latter is more valuable to the viewing audience."

That's from this article from Snopes relating to this subject:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

But to tell the truth, I wouldn't expose my one and only water container to a fire, period.

Sue

Strange, I always thought that paper burned at 451 degrees fahrenheit, its kindling temperature.

Hence, the name of the book about book burning and suppression of free thought.

Then again I may be full of it.

porkchop

The whole point in the discussion was to utilize the new nalgene lexan flasks as a boiling container which would fit into a shirt or pant pocket and serve double duty as a robust water contianer.

In winter I carry the lid/frypan to a snowpeak mess kit.

You mean like my olicamp cup? Or maybe my GSI one? Or the titanium pot I'm lusting after? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Boiling water is 212F.

Paper spontanously igites 451F.

Lexan melts at 310F, gets goofy at 285F (leaches out nasties, etc) in the short term (not sure what is ment by that) and 240F for the long term.

All tempuratures are given at one atmosphere of pressure.

It can handle boiling water pretty well. Fire, not so well.

This is only true if you live 43 miles below sea level. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I've been drinking one to two liters of water every day out of the same Nalgene water bottle at work for well over a decade. I don't know what it's made of (not Lexan). It's translucent white in color and softer than Lexan. I'm not dead yet.

I imagine companies who make water bottles test them for toxicity. If they fail, they'd make them out of some other material. I really doubt Nalgene wants a bunch of dead customers laying around causing bad PR, just so they can use Lexan.

Awhile back the "Nalgene Bottles Unsafe" thread came up and according to the "Bisphenol A" website you would have to consume 1,300 pounds of food every day for life to exceed the EPA level...but that is an Uncooked Nalgene bottle.

The claim is not completely inaccurate. They just didn't bother to say that you need high pressure and super heated steam or certain solvents to get the compounds out. Plenty of undisturbed natural places of great peace and tranquility were you can run into those.

Venus. Maybe the sunny side of Mercury, I'm not sure. The gas giants should all do the trick.

Although, if you're in one of those places, you've got bigger worries. Like how to kill your travel agent if you survive. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yours is HDPE, then. I hope you aren't pouring boiling water into it.

The whole "lexan is bad" thing was caused by some over zealous scientists. You know, the kind that say that "all meat is bad" and "don't cook your veggies" and "gene therapy will kill you".

The answer to your question is no, you should not boil water in nalgene, and if you do, you should certainly not drink it.

The temperatures listed in this thread seem to be forgetting the surface effects of the steam coming from the boiling water. Steam requires much higher btu to generate than does boiling water itself -- in other words, steam has much more energy than boiling water does, even when they are at the same temperature. It will not interact nicely with the nalgene, to put it mildly.

Do yourself a favor and invest in something made of metal for boiling water.