My friend, exactly what are your credentials to make this extraordinary, uninformed claim?

It is statements like this and the "junk science" comment above that prove that old adage, "there are no greater fools than people outside their areas of expertise." You are insulting and dismissing the work of people far more qualified than I'm guessing you are to comment on this topic.

There have been at least 151 studies just in recent years simply on the effects of bisphenol A in animals, including humans. Here's a particularly disturbing one:

• Exposure to bisphenol A is associated with recurrent miscarriage. Human Reproduction 2005 20(8):2325-2329.

If you (or several of the other posters in this thread) think that is junk science, I suggest you try submitting a paper to a major peer-reviewed journal and see if your (no doubt in-depth and scholarly) study of this topic is accepted for publication. If you think a subject affecting much of the population of the planet is unworthy of study, then it is probably for the best that you haven't gone into science as a profession.

If you'd like to examine an academic survey of many of these studies, showing both sides of the issue, check out this report from the Endocrine Disruptors Group.

There is also ample evidence that leaching is increased with temperature in plastics, but I'll leave it to you to explore the literature on that.

That is why this fool asks people who are in their field. It's amazing the people you get to know in a mulit-university/college town.

Everything I've dug up on my own and dug out of people indicates that so long as you keep your tempuratures sane, the amount of bisphenol that leaches out is almost undetectable. Now, I haven't read the report you linked to, so the quantity that has effects is so low as to be right at the detection threshold.

But odds are, something naughty was done with a nalgene bottle. Like the dish washer, with a very strong detergent, which greatly increases the likelyhood of bisphenol getting out of the lexan- I got lost as to the actual mechanism of this, it was over my head. Either that, or it is a contaminant from another source, like industrial waste that was improperly disposed of.

Ways to beat those are: hand wash your lexan bottles by rinsing and not scrubbing (just like a teflon pan) and if they get funky, toss in a denture cleaner tablet (just like a stained coffee cup). And put a carbon filter on your water supply.

I would say good luck, and bring a mop. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

How are you going to regulate the tempurature of your rocks when you are heating them by fire? Anything you are likely to have you will give you the same results as your fingers- "hot! really hot! OWWWW!" <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm not mocking, I'm just making a point- I can't see how you can keep the tempurature regulated enough that you wouldn't deform the bottle, which would destroy the seam, and that is completely ignoring everything that is published about safe tempuratures and lexan.

Actually, I can see one way. Use wire to suspend a heated rock in the middle of the lexan container. But the rate of heat lost fromt eh rock and the total energy it could hold might be problematic. You'd be better off with something like a 1-3/4" sphere (should fit in a wide mouth nalgene) of iron, heated red hot, on the end of a long steel pole.

I can't see that being practical- it would be probably three or four pounds, and for that weight, you can bring a soda stove and a couple pints of dry gas. It also isn't using a rock. I think you are going to find two things- one, you will deform the polycarb in one manner or another by placing the rocks into the bottle unless they are suspended so they don't come into contact with the bottle, and two, IF you can get it to boil without utterly destroying the bottle, you will have almost as much, if not more, rocks than you do water.

And I've never seen it done in a canvas container, and my origami skills suck so much that I can't even make a paper cup that doesn't need paper clips to stay together. Now, I have done it with paper clips, but the paper is definantly a little more the worst for wear around them if I'm boiling over a fire. Never tried putting a hot rock into a paper container, but I have into hard shelled goards, a cocanut shell and an orange rind with a fair degree of happiness (other than there is a rock in my little goard, which means less soup).

The Great Benzene Scare with Perrier about 20 years ago. Some scientist somewhere must have been bored one day and decided to chemically analyze some Perrier. This scientist made an annoucement that there was benzene ( a carcinogen) found in the Perrier! Millions of bottles were thrown out, because no one wanted to get cancer from drinking snooty water.

Later it was determined that the amount of benzene found was like putting a teaspoon of benzene in all of the oceans on Earth.

I have no expertise in these things, so I'm not jumping into the lexan debate, but the Perrier example just goes to show that one needs to scrutinize information and then make as informed a decision as possible.

And yes, I have some of that snooty water in the fridge at this moment...they're making it in plastic bottles now! Can't find lime though <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

In the produce section, next to the lemons. *hands Ors a knife*

Not sure that's such a good idea...my last laceration is just healing up <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

at least you could boil water in a glass perrier bottle.....

If someone has an old bottle they aren't worried about destroying, I think the heated rock boiling method it is worth a try. A thin film of water/steam between the rock and the plastic may be enough to prevent it from melting. OR, put a layer of pebbles on the bottom to support the hot rock.

As for "toxic chemicals" in everyday items, this is quite OT, but:
Excerpted and heavily snipped from http://www.junkscience.com/foxnews/fn081800.htm
<snip>
As I was enjoying some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at one of their “scoop shops” last summer, I noticed a Ben & Jerry’s marketing brochure titled “Our Thoughts on Dioxin.” The brochure stated, “Dioxin is known to cause cancer, genetic and reproductive defects and learning disabilities... The only safe level of dioxin exposure is no exposure at all.”
<snip>
We measured the level of dioxin in a sample of Ben & Jerry’s “World’s Best Vanilla” ice cream.
<snip>
Two independent laboratories using different methodologies reported a single serving of the ice cream contained about 200 times the level of dioxin the EPA says is safe
<snip>
The story gets better.
<snip>
...based on our testing, a single serving of Ben & Jerry’s contains about 2,285 times more dioxin than an 8-ounce “serving” of gasoline refinery wastewater at the permitted level.
<snip>

ironraven,

I'm not saying that your wrong, because I don't think that any of us know for sure until we try it.

I do think you are right in that is isn't ideal, and I certainly wouldn't recommend carrying a lexan bottle expecting to use it to boil water. But if you have no other water containers at all, and feel that you need to boil water for some reason, then it would be nice to know if it was possible.

I'll try it this weekend and we'll see how it goes. I don't really have any idea if it will work or not, but we will at least have a better idea hopefully. I'm not going to try to regulate the heat, since as you said I don't believe there will be a practicle way to do it in the field, other than maybe a rough idea of how long I perform the heating. Should be an adventure! And I won't need a mop, because I am going to do it outside! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

As for me not being an expert in biochemistry, that is true. However, I have submitted papers to several scientific journals, and I know how it works. I also know how often data is manipulated to support the particular scientists agenda. How many examples should I list on all of the carcinogens that have been "discovered" over the years? Saccarine? DDT? Aspartame? Please. One study finds caffine is bad for you, the next says it isn't.

Upon review of the studies posted, it appears that there is definately evidence of bias (and if one side exhibits it, why should we believe the other doesn't?). Also, the studies seem to indicate that effects are for fairly significant doses over several days, which is unlikely to be the case in any situation that this techinique would be used. Also, I suppose if you are pregnant, you may wish to choose another option (although dying of dehydration isn't a terribly good one either, IMHO).

As a radiation physicist, I see all kinds of nonsense written about radiation physics and biology (on this list even). Perhaps I am incorrect and the water that I boil in my Nalgene water bottle will be the deadliest thing since ebola. I am also not suggesting that everyone make a habit of drinking such water daily by the gallon as a tonic.

If I am ever in the situation where I have to try something like this, the last thing on my mind is going to be what the potential hazards of the nalgene are.

Greg

While we're on the subject, www.karstsports.com is having a huge sale, part of which is Nalgene bottles for as little as $4.25. Many of them are unusual colors or themes (raspberry musn't have been a popular color).