Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The environment vs. my health

I was putting some milk in my coffee the other morning in the office kitchen when someone I don't know (from another department?) said, "You know those are bad for you, right?"
I looked up and realized he was referring to my small Nalgene bottle which I fill with milk at the beginning of the week and keep in the fridge at work. 
I replied that I was aware of the issue but that I had never really taken it that seriously and since I have about 7 or 8 various sized Nalgenes, I hadn't really considered throwing them all away. He said a few other things about how the dangers are pretty cut and dry, etc and generally looked at me like I was crazy. I also said something about not really believing that the studies were that conclusive with respect to the level of exposure necessary to increase one's risk of cancer.

If you're not familiar with the issue, here's an excerpt from the Nalgene entry in Wikipedia:
"In recent years, studies have suggested that polycarbonate plastics such as the ones Nalgene used may leach endocrine disruptors. Nalgene denies that the quantity leached from their products posed a significant threat to health.[5] Among the secreted chemicals, Bisphenol A (BPA) is an area of concern as it binds to estrogen receptors, thus altering gene expression. Other research has found that fixatives in polycarbonate plastics can cause chromosomal error in cell division called aneuploidy. Nalgene claims these chemicals are only potentially released from Nalgene products when used at temperatures outside of the designed range.

In November 2007, Mountain Equipment Co-op removed all hard, clear polycarbonate plastic water bottles (including Nalgene-branded product) from their shelves and no longer offers these items for sale. In December 2007, Lululemon made a similar move. In May 2008, REI removed Nalgene-branded polycarbonate water bottles and replaced them with BP-A free Nalgene bottles.

On April 18, 2008, Health Canada announced that Bisphenol A is "'toxic' to human health". Canada is the first nation to make this designation. On the same date Nalgene announced it would phase out production of its Outdoor line of polycarbonate containers containing the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA). Nalgene’s current product mix, includes the recently launched Everyday line and the original polycarbonate bottles made from materials that do not contain BPA."

Also, a New York Times article from this past April: NYT: Bottle Maker to Stop Using Plastic Linked to Health Concerns

So after knowing all that, it does kind of sound silly that I continue to use these bottles. I've tried to find out if there's a decent way to dispose of them if I were to come to that decision. So far, the only solution seems to be to find a recycling service that accepts plastics with the #7 on the bottom. I think that generally, your neighborhood recycling service doesn't accept those items. I REALLY don't want to just chuck them in the landfill. But should I be looking out more for the environment or my health?*

Would you throw yours away? Have you already?

Oh, and my replacement of choice at this point would be Sigg bottles.

*I realize that my personal health is in many ways tied to the health of the environment.

5 comments:

princess said...

So I reluctantly came to the conclusion that I should probably not use my Nalgene since I tend to leave water in it overnight and BPA leaches over time. And since Matty drinks at least 2 full bottles worth per day I decided that he shouldnt use it either. I replaced them with these Bilt ones because the mouth is wider than the Sigg which makes cleaning the inside much much easier. http://www.rei.com/product/777197 But we still have the Nalgene ones. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet. But I refuse to throw them away and I dont think anyone (easily reachable) recycles #7 plastic.

Beta said...

I LOVE that Bilt bottle!! I'm not married to the Sigg ones. I do like to have at least 1 small mouth option, but in general, I agree that the wide mouth are easier to clean. Bet you can get those inserts for the wide mouth too so you don't make a mess (I'm sure I'm not the only one who has that problem).

nicole said...

I want to replace the 2 I have..... But haven't found ones big enough that I like, so as of yet I haven't. We went through this with the baby bottles and trying to find ones that were BPA free that worked for us. We tried a few but none we liked. So we kept the ones we had. We never put them in the dishwasher or sterilized them in boiling water or the microwave, just hand washed so I wasn't all that concerned for him. And he stopped most bottle feeding by 9 months and all together by 10 or 11 months. Sorry. Off subject!

Erich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nicole said...

So after looking at the Sigg website you were considering i liked them and bought one. I like it. the colors arent exactly as they appear in the pictures but thats ok. the screw top it comes with takes a long time to screw in and out so i am happy i bought the sport flip top as well, although to actually drink out of it you have to push it in whith your mouth which is kind of weird but i guess it works well for sports and climbing so that nothing leaks out when you arent drinking from it...overall its a good buy. i got the 1 litre bottle because i cant fill it up while teaching and i though it was going to be big and bulky but its not so thats also good :)