read on 2 seperate forums, maybe posted by the same guy. A thing about some possible nasty side affect of lexan.... good thing that i was too cheap to buy the lexan version and got the HDPE one's. http://pub1.ezboard.com/fhoodlumsquestionsandanswers.showMessage?topicID=3344.topic and http://www.backpacking.net/forums/showfl...p;amp;fpart=all

This sounds like typical knee-jerking if I ever saw it. I particularly loved the quote, "if we wait until we have hard evidence it will be too late!" Also known as, "No, we don't really have any proof that it is a problem, but we sure FEEL like it must be bad, so we need to do something about it!"

Even if their study was peer reviewed and duplicated (which I gather it hasn't been), then it looks to me like we should possibly not use harsh detergents in our bottle (which I don't do anyway).

I'm going to go back to drinking my caffinated diet coke with aspertame... Wait, maybe I will have iced tea with sacharine instead. Now that it's warming up, we might want to break out our insect repellent with DEET in it. Or should we?

Greg "Is that the sky I see falling?" Sackett

Having worked in the field of Laboratory Animal Science for close to 30 years, I feel I have some working knowledge in this area. Let me assure you that it is safe to use polycarbonate bottles for the consumption of water and other similar liquids (soups, coffee, tea, etc.), the detergents used in most laboratory animal facilities are by far more concentrated and of a chemical compositions not available to the consumer. The leaching of BPA’s from cages and water bottles made from polycarbonate has been observed for some time in laboratory animal facilities. It is the combination of the cage washing detergent and high temperature washers (>180 0 F), over long periods of time, neither of which the public will have their water bottles exposed to, that causes the leaching. Keep in mind also, it is not the occasional exposure to the BPA’s that is a problem but daily contact with the chemical, to which the rodents were exposed. Many laboratory animal facilities no longer use the particular class of chemical detergents that caused the problem and have switched to other detergents and are no longer seeing the problem. As with many controversial issues, fiction rather than fact is often perpetuated in the media and numerous web sites. Pete

If you go to Nalgene's site they have a very thoughtful response to this. You are probably in more "danger" if you drink highly acidic soft drinks out of plastic bottles. You are definitely in more danger from thousands of other things you come in contact during your life in the modern world.

Here is the link. I had to go somewhere when I was posting earlier and didn't have the time to look for it.
Nalgene's response

They also have an outside article in PDF re this issue.

I am glad to see that we are a well researched and educated group of people in this forum! I have to agree with what I read in the other forums, specifically, that an unamed detergent has caused problem in mice is a long leap to birth defects in humans. And then the answers in this forum and the one on Nalgene's web site are excellent as well. These bottles are too good to not use and the idea hat Lexan is poisonous is pretty far fetched. But then again.....I have felt some of my chormosomes disappearing from my body lately......
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Garrett