i am usually not the type of person to ignore information that may be detrimental to my health. but i seem to have been able to tune out the news about BPA almost entirely until now.
you see, adam and i drink out of #7 bottles on a daily basis. it is not uncommon to see me carrying a 32 ounce nalgene bottle of water.
it all started pragmatically; we used nalgene bottles when hiking and backpacking because they are tough and light. but now we use them daily to replace water bottles. i have one by my bedside every night. adam and i have our personal favorite bottles; decorated with stickers and scarred by repeated hiking abuse. it's not too much to say that we have become emotionally attached to our nalgene bottles.
but we have used them to brew tea and coffee. and we have had some of these bottles for many years.
i admittedly stuck my head in the sand when i first heard about this BPA business, but now i can no longer avoid it. "endocrine disruption" doesn't really sound fun and i am sort of attached to being able to use my brain.
have these nalgene bottles been compromised forever by their exposure to hot water? that would mean throwing them away and this seems pretty wasteful.
how do i know that those "BPA free" bottles really don't have BPA in them? plastic "BPA free" bottles still have #7 on the bottom. i'm not trying to be cynical, but it's not like consumers haven't been lied to before. plastics is an industry after all.
there is "information" to suggest that BPA exposure is not harmful. BPA is on the inside of most of our canned foods, right?
certainly the FDA wouldn't allow our food to be corrupted...
oh wait, maybe i'm thinking of canada.
I know, this stuff drives me nuts too. It never seems to end....more convinced than ever that we need to return to glass, wood, stone and fired clay. Heavy in a backpack though. I continue to use my nalgene for cold water on hiking trips and glass everywhere else....can't help but wonder if the modern methods of making glass should be suspect as well.....
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my supervisor has been trying to convert the runners/hikers in our office to the stainless steel bottles that have become popular. however, more change would be needed to totally protect oneself. i just microwaved my green beans in a plastic container! thanks for doing the leg work to compile a bunch of info on this topic and put it in one place. being informed is sometimes a good thing. also as concerning is the reading material on phthalates..another chemical in plastics and household/hygiene products that studies have shown are affecting our population. its easy to obsess about these things but making some informed changes can make us feel a little better.
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