Nalgene (Poly Carbonate/Lexan) Bottle and Bisphenol-A (BPA)

Just wanted to pass this along to those interested.

There are some issues coming up with Poly-Carbonate drinking bottles. The most common are probably the hard Nalgene bottles, the are usually marked as a Number 7 Recyclable or as PC. I have a shelf full of these bottles I have used for years, so I was really resistant to anything that said I should stop drinking out of them....

Turns out there is a chemical used in the manufacture of Poly-Carbonate called Bisphenol-A (BPA). It tends to leach out of the material into the water (or any other liquid) contained in the bottle. The leaching tends to get worse as the bottle gets older, rather than less, and also gets worse if it has gone through the dishwasher (due to the high heat).

So what's the problem with BPA? As research goes on it is being linked to Prostate Cancer, breast Cancer, Birth Defects, mimics estrogen in the body along with a slew of other things. I have dumped my bottles and switched over to Sigg and Klean Kanteen (metal) bottles. Here are just a couple links with more information:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=3450831&page=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Monomers/BPA-Risk-Bottles13apr05.htm

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200311/lol5.asp