Lexan and BPA - Is a Swig of Nalgene More Than a Mouthful?
19 12 2007
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned some information I’d read many times, online and in magazines. (A two-headed gorilla told it to me in a dream also, but that doesn’t seem so important, really.)
A geneticist named Dr. Patricia Hunt had found that when washing the (polycarbonate) plastic cages of her mice with an extremely harsh detergent, the plastic leached BPA, which led to chromosomal aberrations in the mice (a jump from an incidence of 1-2% to 40%).
Some then took this information to mean that Nalgene bottles made from Lexan (which is a form of polycarbonate, or plastic #7) were also leaching BPA and were disrupting our endocrine systems, putting humans at risk for birth defects.
However, Nalgene and those who sell Nalgene products want us all to be very clear on this issue:
*Nalgene bottles made from Lexan are composed of FOOD GRADE polycarbonate, which leaches minimal (read: basically inconsequential) amounts of BPA into our bodies. The cages for the mice were not made of food grade polycarbonate. (Who wants to eat food out of a mouse cage, anyways?)
*Hunt’s scientific data and conclusions have yet to be reliably reproduced by her peers.
*Nalgene-outdoor.com claims that Sierra Magazine allegedly made the leap from reading Hunt’s study to publishing an article warning consumer’s about Nalgene bottles without consulting enough sources.
IS THIS JUST NALGENE PROPAGANDA?
I don’t know. Maybe the amount of BPA that the bottles put into our water really doesn’t matter all that much. Maybe it does. I suggest you either switch from plastic water bottles to be more safe than sorry, or you trust Nalgene and stay abreast of scientific data as it is further revealed. Personally, I’m going to switch to nonplastic, so don’t come crying to me when you give birth to a two headed dog. (Just kidding, Nalgene.)
More importantly, plastic is a non-biodegradable material, and it is largely inefficient to recycle, so the less of it you purchase, the better.
Finally, here’s what Debra Lynn Dadd (hailed by the New York Times as the ‘Queen of Green’ and a leading consumer advocate) has to say about all this: debraslist.com
