It’s hard to imagine that there’s even more reasons to steer clear of plastic water bottles…but surprise: there is!
This time the focus is polycarbonate plastic water bottles, which are popular reusable canteens like the one pictured here.
A recent Harvard School of Public Health Study shows that drinking from polycarbonate plastic water bottles will quickly and dramatically increase a person’s bisphenol A (BPA) levels.
So now you can add ‘fast-acting’ to BPA’s resume. As if being a contributor to health problems ranging from diabetes and obesity to infertility and heart disease wasn’t enough!
The study showed that tested students who drank from stainless steel bottles for a week, and then switched to polycarbonate plastic bottles, found that the amount of BPA in their urine shot up 69% in just a couple of days!
Encouraging Red Tape
While the FDA continues to claim BPA is safe, the new administration may take a new stance. In an email sent to the Boston Globe recently, Michael L. Herndon, an FDA spokesman said that newly appointed chief scientist Jesse Goodman will “provide new leadership and take a fresh look at this important issue from a scientific and policy position, incorporating emerging science and appropriate input from both inside and outside the agency.”
Could adding the Harvard study to the mounting evidence of BPA health risks finally get the FDA to outlaw it? Let’s hope so. But until then, I’m holding tight to my stainless steel bottle and not letting go…and I encourage you to do the same!
Via: www.saferstates.com
Thanks for this info Laura,
I had assumed and been told that polycarbonate did not leach into water. The test actually shows there is a high rate of BPA pass through and one wishes they had followed up by watching for the BPA in urine for a week after use of the polycarbonate containers was discontinued. I don’t have confidence in stainless steel either and would like to see both blood and urine tests for nickel for people using stainless containers. More and more it seems that glass is the only way to go. I was on a site yesterday that sold 3 gallon glass jugs for $48 each and even pint jars were not cheap. Fortunately I have a collection of 4 liter glass wine jugs and I will start using those. Now I need to see how they store the distilled water I have been buying in bulk and storing in the polycarbonate 5 gallon bottles.
Now I am hoping to find out what might remove the BPA I have been accumulating over the past 3 years with my “pure” water. This is very upsetting! And important to know. Thanks again!
It is my understanding that the polycarbonate water bottle manufacturers, i.e. Camel Back and Nalgene, took their bottles off the market last year to reformulate without BPA due to consumer growing awareness. Today, the bottles, their printed labels and hang tags state they are “BPA free”. Do you think we can we trust this information?
Thanks,
Debbie