Sludge Watch ==> Reusable plastic bottles leach BPA at room temperature - use glass or metal

[Maureen Reilly]

This may be worse than we thought


Reusable plastic bottles leach BPA at room temperature

A lot of people have those reusable polycarbonate water bottles; you can’t 
go to a college campus these days without seeing students carrying these 
multi-hued bottles around as they make their way through classes.
Well, a couple weeks back researchers at the University of Cincinnati 
released a startling new study showing that many of these bottles leach 
bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disruptor, into water that is being stored 
within the container.

These researchers found that these plastic bottles leach BPA into 
room-temperature water. That’s bad enough, but if boiling water is put into 
these bottles, the rate of BPA leaching goes up by quite a bit.

All the evidence out there tells us that this stuff is not good for you; EWG 
tested canned foods recently, which are lined with the same BPA plastic as 
these water bottles are made from. As it turns out, foods from metal cans 
contain significantly more of the chemical than water from bottles.

We applaud the use of reusable water bottles to cut down on the 
environmental impact of bottled water, but with this new research, metal 
water bottles are looking better and better. Some have a plastic lining, but 
Klean Kanteen makes metal water bottles that are BPA free.

Parents who are concerned about baby’s plastic bottles should know that 
although this study didn’t look at baby bottles, it studied the same type of 
plastic. At this point, there’s enough research out there to justify the 
added expense of buying BPA-free or glass bottles. But an even more critical 
step would be to substitute powdered formula for liquid formula if your baby 
isn’t drinking breast milk. Babies don’t need to be getting extra endocrine 
disruptors in any form.


http://www.enviroblog.org/2008/02/bpa-leach-room-temperature.htm