Re-using plastic water bottles causes CANCER!!!1!!

[JoeTheJuggler]

I find it annoying when someone drinking a bottled soda harps on me for drinking bottled water. Especially since I rarely buy a new one and the arguement is often based on the assumption that I am constantly buying a new bottled water each day (its more like once every six months and just reusing the bottle). It is also hilarious when people try to give me quotes about bottled water being over 99% the same as tap water, just using a different set of filters from the same sources (barring a few companies that don't even bother with that). I sincerely hope they are that similar. That is why I am drinking it. I was thirsty, and wanted water. Of course the usual assumption when people try to convince me to stop drinking bottled water is that I am drinking it out of supposed purity that the bottle water companies market. Mostly it is just the convenience. When in a restaurant I drink from a cup and refuse offered upgrade to whatever bottled water is sold there. In a mall or other place with water fountains I tend to use those water fountains.

I'm not quite sure what your defense here is--you do buy bottled water or you just refill empties from the tap? If it's the latter, I don't condemn the practice, but I think you're maybe saying you do the former. (Either there is or is not a case of store-bought bottled water in your refrigerator right now.)

I don't drink bottled soda either, but I do condemn the bottled water fad. It makes no sense. At least buying bottled soda, you're buying something that you can't get for free on tap. There's a value-added product.

Again, the impact on the environment is huge. While you certainly dispose of your empties properly (or maybe even drop them into recycling bins), the industry accounts for a huge portion of litter (some of which ends up in our streams and eventually contributes to the giant plastic vortices in the oceans) and a huge portion of solid waste that goes into landfills.

It's wasteful to use energy and fossil fuels to produce the bottles and to transport water on trucks and trains.

Now if you live somewhere that doesn't have a decent potable water delivery system, I would encourage you to address that problem rather than buying bottled water.

I'm fine with it as a temporary solution to transient problems (like unsafe municipal water following a flood or some such).

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

From what little I've read, there does seem to be some evidence that bisphenol has some potential risks, especially for fetal exposure. Studies seem to conflict, but it's not just woo-woo scaremongering, apparently. Whether it's bad enough to warrant changing water bottles is of course questionable if you're getting more from other sources you can't change.

But again, you're talking about the kind of bottles that are sold empty to be re-used. These are the hardened plastic or "Nalgene" bottles that Canada banned. As someone else said, the weak evidence of risk is probably far outweighed by the benefits of hydration when I'm running!

I think the OP is talking about re-using the kind of bottles that you buy filled with bottled water. And it makes no sense to claim that the water that was put in there at the factory doesn't leach out carcinogens, but subsequent re-filling of them does.

As someone else mentioned, since the factory water is in there for a longer time, it probably has a greater chance of leaching--if any such chance exists at all.

 

[fuelair]

Wash bottle like any other item you reuse for food or drink. If concerned, let bottle air dry Fill 1/8 to 1/4 with cool water and shake to catch any leached traces, empty, fill with water to drink.

 

[Peter i]

When it comes to polycarbonate bottles, there is a core of truth in the story.

Several companies have withdrawn the "Nalgene" bottles, and the company itself has stopped making food/drink containers from polycarbonate.

See bottom of page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalgene

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

When it comes to polycarbonate bottles, there is a core of truth in the story.

Several companies have withdrawn the "Nalgene" bottles, and the company itself has stopped making food/drink containers from polycarbonate.

See bottom of page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalgene

Yes, that's what I've been saying. But the OP talked about re-filling bottles that bottled water comes in. These aren't the same thing as the hardened "Nalgene" bottles.

Even wrt the "Nalgene" bottles, the case that they're dangerous is pretty weak.

 

[Beanbag]

I never trusted the water-clear transparent bottles, as they tend to be too thin (and therefore too easy to rupture) for camping uses. I've always used the "cloudy" HDPE Nalgene bottles with the narrow mouth. They're virtually indestructible and are chemically inert, with nothing to leach out into the water. THAT is why they are used in chem labs.

The quart/liter size makes the best canteen, and stows in most pack side pockets. I've been using one for over ten years: much-scuffed, but still going strong.

Beanbag

 

[king catfish]

Ask your daughter to proof read your posts for you then

I know; I'm a terrible typist.

**profoundly**

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

I'm not quite sure what your defense here is--you do buy bottled water or you just refill empties from the tap? If it's the latter, I don't condemn the practice, but I think you're maybe saying you do the former. (Either there is or is not a case of store-bought bottled water in your refrigerator right now.)

I reuse the same bottle over and over again and the situation in which I buy a new bottle is pretty rare and involves the lack of drinking fountains around. I too would discourage people from buying all their drinking water bottled in general but bottled water being available is extremely convenient in some situations, but most discouragement I have experienced comes from random people who make an assumption about my purchasing habits or how I filled the bottle I am drinking from. Personally I always encourage the installation of new drinking fountains and getting a cup of water over bottled water when possible.

 

[stevea]

Wow -First I' m surprised at how few ppl know about bisphenol-A. I've seen articles suggesting it's a problem for most of a decade.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a

MANY plasticizers are known carcinogen and they leach out of the plastics. The primary differnence between FDA approved plastics, approved for food use, and common plastics like ones used for non-food applications are the various plasticisers used. So the counter-factual attitude that plasticisers don't matter is plain ignorance.

Bisphenols appears on polycarbonates used for hard clear (sometimes clear but colored) plastic containers. There is solid evidence that drinking from these does cause measurable amounts of bisphenol-A to appear in the body. Whether and the extent to which it's mutagenic/carcinogenic in humans is an open question.

Of course pthalates in soft plastics is the other concern.

 

[leafman91]

So, I'm sure this has been done to death in some thread I can't find, the ones I could find involve microwaving plastic, which has been debunked.

My roommate is convinced that me refilling my water bottle is going to give me cancer, she says her grandfather got cancer for this same reason and wont leave me alone about it. My first instinct was that this is woo, the google gave me mixed answers, but seemed tipped in the favor of woo. I thought I'd triple check here anyway.

Is there any possibility that using a water bottle multiple times will leek some 'chemicals' out that cause cancer? Is this any different than using a plastic cup multiple times?

The google told me that there was problems found with some "plastic #7" (?) but didn't say what items this plastic was in.
Sounds like a big load of 'evil companies poison consumers' to me, but just thought I'd triple check!

I remember something about how you shouldn't refill them with juice because the citric acid would corrode the bottle sufficiently to release harmful chemical into your drink. I think this is on what the claim is mistakenly based

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Wow -First I' m surprised at how few ppl know about bisphenol-A. I've seen articles suggesting it's a problem for most of a decade.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=plastic-not-fantastic-with-bisphenol-a

MANY plasticizers are known carcinogen and they leach out of the plastics. The primary differnence between FDA approved plastics, approved for food use, and common plastics like ones used for non-food applications are the various plasticisers used. So the counter-factual attitude that plasticisers don't matter is plain ignorance.

Bisphenols appears on polycarbonates used for hard clear (sometimes clear but colored) plastic containers. There is solid evidence that drinking from these does cause measurable amounts of bisphenol-A to appear in the body. Whether and the extent to which it's mutagenic/carcinogenic in humans is an open question.

Of course pthalates in soft plastics is the other concern.

Several of us have mentioned this issue on this very thread, so I'm not sure why you say you're surprised how few people know about this issue. In fact, just about every other post in this thread has been about bisphenol-A.

And the evidence that using these hardened plastic bottles is dangerous is mighty weak.

However, as I've said a couple of times now, that's only an issue for the hardened plastic bottles that are sold as water bottles. That is NOT an issue for refilling bottles that came with bottled water which I'm pretty sure is what the OP was talking about.

 

[tesscaline]

However, as I've said a couple of times now, that's only an issue for the hardened plastic bottles that are sold as water bottles.

It may not even really be much of an issue for those, as the nalgene bottle I bought recently at REI made a point of specifying that it is BPA-free -- both on the packaging, and stamped into the plastic on the bottom of the thing.

 

[Stout]

When I first heard about the Bisphenol-A thing, I did a little research thinking that I'd probably have to ditch my polycarbonate water bottle on the spot and get something else instantly. I didn't see any urgency so I filed the issue under "yea, whenever I find myself in a position to pick up a replacement" and continued to use it.

I ended up using it all summer and came to refer to it as my "toxic" water bottle because pretty much everybody i talked to knew about the BPA scare and had replaced theirs.

JoeTheJuggler, is that your photograph in your avatar ? I'm a fire spinner and I'd rate that as being significantly more harmful to my health than the chemicals that are leaching out of my water bottle. I smoke, I eat processed foods, I breathe city air. I just painted my bathroom and on the grand scale of things that are harmful to me, I find it hard to get excited about reusing plastic. .

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

JoeTheJuggler, is that your photograph in your avatar ? I'm a fire spinner and I'd rate that as being significantly more harmful to my health than the chemicals that are leaching out of my water bottle. I smoke, I eat processed foods, I breathe city air. I just painted my bathroom and on the grand scale of things that are harmful to me, I find it hard to get excited about reusing plastic. .

Yep.. . .and yep. I only do the fire plume on rare occasions nowadays, though, but I probably do get a lot more carcinogens from being around torch fuel and fire juggling than from any water bottle.

(Even so, I'm sure the riskiest thing I do in any given day is to get in a car and drive in traffic!)

 

[bruto]

I'm more or less with Stout on this. When the water bottle scare occurred, I figured I ought to keep my eye out for a better bottle. I don't drink gallons of water out of a water bottle anyway. When a suitable sized stainless thermos turned up at a yard sale, I started using that. My wife got a stainless bottle too, but not at the drop of a hat. Even if the risk is minimal, it's pretty easy to minimize it without getting all worked up.

 

[wuschel]

When a suitable sized stainless thermos turned up at a yard sale, I started using that. My wife got a stainless bottle too, but not at the drop of a hat. Even if the risk is minimal, it's pretty easy to minimize it without getting all worked up.

Only for as long as you neglect the possible potential health risks associated with using stainless steel containers instead, of course!

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Only for as long as you neglect the possible potential health risks associated with using stainless steel containers instead, of course!

Exactly!

And people continue to drink out of aluminum containers despite the correlation with Alzheimer's!

 

[Foolmewunz]

I concur that it's not the bottles that water and soda are sold in that are supposed to be the concern. It's the hardened-reusable bottles.

The baby industry (and it is an industry) has been plugging BPA free bottles for a couple of years. Now being staunchly anti-woo, and staunchly pro-evidence, I of course.....

Own several of the "healthier" options. I have no idea if there's a problem with BPA. The literature is inconclusive. But I ain't messing with my kid and the BPA Free bottles are the same price as the other fancy schmancy bottles.

Boy, will I feel dumb in a few years, right? Not in the least.

 

[bruto]

Only for as long as you neglect the possible potential health risks associated with using stainless steel containers instead, of course!

Of course, not to mention the potential risks associated with the water we put in, but why do we need a slippery slope here? The risk from the plastic bottles has been identified, while I'm aware of no such risk being identified for stainless steel. It's small enough that there need be no panic, but it's apparently real enough to warrant avoiding if the price of avoidance is suitably low, and in this case, results in a better drink of water as a bonus.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

The risk from the plastic bottles has been identified

Has it really? Proof that a known carcinogen can in certain circumstances be leached into water is far from conclusive evidence of a known risk to people using the bottles. Someone in this thread pointed out that a normal rinsing removes pretty much any reasonable chance of leaching anything out in quantities large enough to matter. (Heck, there's traces of stuff like arsenic in most municipal water, but that doesn't mean it's not safe.)