Posted on 12/28/2007 12:35:20 AM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
Health Concerns Resurface Over Chemical Used in Hard-Plastic Polycarbonate Water Bottles
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Catching his breath at a fitness club, Matt McHugh took a gulp of water from his trusty, hard-plastic Nalgene bottle and pondered the idea of switching to an alternative made of glass, stainless steel or another kind of plastic.
Worries about a hormone-mimicking chemical used in the trendy sports accessory led a major Canadian retailer to remove Nalgene and other polycarbonate plastic containers from store shelves in early December.
"It's definitely a concern but I'd like to learn more before I make any decisions about my water bottles," McHugh, 26, a business manager for a reggae band, said with an easy laugh. "For now, I'll probably keep using my Nalgene until it breaks. It's indestructible, I've heard!"
Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-op is waiting for Canadian health regulators to finish a preliminary review in May before it reconsiders restocking its 11 stores with the reusable, transparent bottles made with bisphenol A, or BPA, a compound created by a Russian chemist in 1891.
There is little dispute that the chemical can disrupt the hormonal system, but scientists differ markedly on whether very low doses found in food and beverage containers can be harmful. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sides with the plastics industry that BPA-based products do not pose a health risk.
However, an expert panel of researchers reported at a U.S. government conference that the potential for BPA to affect human health is a concern, and more research is needed. The panel cited evidence that Americans have levels of BPA higher than those found to cause harm in lab animals.
Patagonia Inc., another outdoor-gear retailer based in Ventura, Calif., pulled polycarbonate water bottles from its 40 stores worldwide in December 2005 and, a month later, organic foods chain Whole Foods Markets stopped selling polycarbonate baby bottles and child drinking cups.
Some environmental groups in the United States and Canada expect others will soon follow suit.
"Given there are comparably priced, greener alternatives, I'm quite convinced that within a couple of years, we're going to see the end of this chemical in consumer products," said Rick Smith, executive director of Toronto-based Environmental Defense Canada.
The controversy turned an unwelcome spotlight on Nalge Nunc International, a division of Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. It employs about 900 people at a plant tucked behind a shopping plaza in the Rochester suburb of Penfield.
"Rarely has a chemical been the subject of such intense scientific testing and scrutiny, and still important agencies across the globe agree that there is no danger posed to humans from polycarbonate bottles," Tom Cummins, a Nalge Nunc research director, said in a statement.
The company declined to allow executives to be interviewed. Its consumer products arm, with estimated sales of $50 million to $65 million, accounts for a fraction of Thermo Fisher's $9.5 billion in annual revenues.
UBS Investment Research analyst Derik De Bruin told investors Nalge Nunc also makes translucent containers made of other, softer plastics such as polyethylene. So even a wider retailer recall of polycarbonate products "would likely have minimal impact on the company," he wrote.
Nalge Nunc was founded in 1949 by Rochester chemist Emanuel Goldberg. The lab-equipment supplier evolved in the 1970s when rumors about its scientists taking hardy lab vessels on weekend outings led to a water-bottle consumer unit targeting Boy Scouts, hikers and campers.
In 2000, a new sports line of Nalgene-brand bottles offered in red, blue and yellow hues quickly became the rage in high schools and on college campuses.
Highly durable and lightweight, resistant to stains and odors, and able to withstand extremes of hot and cold, screw-cap Nalgene bottles are marketed as an environmentally responsible substitute for disposable water bottles. This holiday season, they're being offered in new colors such as amber, moss green and vibrant violet.
In this city of Lake Ontario's southern shore, judgments about a long-admired local business were invariably leavened with sympathy.
"Nalgene is the hallmark water bottle for the backcountry," said businessman and skiing enthusiast Rob Norris, 58, as he shopped for a backpack at an Eastern Mountain Sports store.
"I don't have any reservations right now," he said. "To me, it's one of these overreaching things where there's some microscopic particles that could leach out of a piece of plastic. But who knows what's in the water we're drinking?"
But Ellen Guisto, 31, a stay-at-home mother of two, said a growing chorus of concern about the chemical makes her hesitate. "I'm not an alarmist by nature but if I hear there's a chance that this may cause cancer, I don't think I would use it," she said.
Prompted by a swell of complaints over more than three years, Mountain Equipment Canada's largest consumer cooperative with 2.7 million members said it removed mostly polycarbonate water bottles and food containers, but left water filters and other products containing the chemical on store shelves. It also will continue to sell Nalgene containers made of other plastics, spokesman Tim Southam said.
In response, the FDA reiterated that "BPA has been used in consumer products for over 50 years. In that time, there has been no evidence that BPA is harmful to humans, either as the result of dietary intake or industrial worker exposures."
With more than 6 million pounds produced in the United States each year, bisphenol A is found in dental sealants, the liners of food cans, CDs and DVDs, eyeglasses and hundreds of household goods.
Citing multiple studies in the United States, Europe and Japan, the chemicals industry maintains that polycarbonate bottles contain little BPA and leach traces considered too low to harm humans.
But critics point to an influx of animal studies linking low doses to a wide variety of ailments from breast and prostate cancer, obesity and hyperactivity, to miscarriages and other reproductive failures.
An expert panel of 38 academic and government researchers who attended a National Institutes of Health-sponsored conference said in a study in August that "the potential for BPA to impact human health is a concern, and more research is clearly needed."
Fred vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri and one of the study's chief authors said the panel reviewed 700 published articles on BPA, practically all published in the last 10 years. Yet U.S. health and environmental regulators "are pretending they're still in the dark," he said.
That's not very comforting.
I received a water bottle for Christmas, but I cannot determine if it contains this material. Nothing on the bottle itself lists what it is made of.
Anyone know how to tell?
Everybody Panic!!!
What other report would one expect from the National Institute of Health? All their revenue is based upon grant monies being sent for research studies. Why wouldn’t they recommend further study?
The effects of dehydration are much more serious than the risk that you'll grow man-boobs.
PING
Anyone know how to tell?
Isn't there a triangular recycle logo molded into the bottom?
Take a Q-Tip, dip it in acetone (Fingernail polish will work) and rub it on the bottle. If a thin film softens and glues cotton lint to the bottle, it could be Lexan (Polycarbonate). This plastic is used in cheap drugstore reading glasses, and since I often work with acetone, it is quite a nuisance to see tiny droplets making fisheyes on the lenses when I leave them on the bench and get clumsy.
There are other plastics like the butyrates that acetone will dissolve, but they are not used in food packaging.
Polycarbonate/urethane copolymers have been FDA aproved for use in some implants, and Lexan has been used in disposable labware such as Petri dishes for decades. I really would not worry about it, myself.
People who run injection molding machines are exposed to the fumes from the hot plastics. Since Lexan has been used for decades, if there were serious hazards, they would have shown up among these people, who would have had bisphenol A exposures many times that of the general population.
AI-EEEEEEEEEE!!!
I’m tossing all of them right away!
But wait....they are polyCARBONate and I will be increasing global temperatures and making it colder at the same time!
What a bunch of overblown crap....another carbon based residue.
Anyone know if the CSIP is involved? I bet their finger prints are all over these bottles.
Translation: We missed out on the global warming scare. Send money.
There’s no one going to survive this life, we’re all going to die from something, so STOP WORRYING and get on with it.
We got a beautiful full dish set and a complete line of tupperware from our zealot health-conscious friends.
They were worried about chemicals in the dishes transfering into food, and also the tupper plastic transferring into food during the microwave process. I can use a new sports bottle. I'll have to send him a link to this article.
A used Gatorade bottle works for me.
The new alar,
new ddt scare
MSM looking for a new panic.
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/BI/bisphenol_A.html
ORL means oral dose, MAM is an unspecified mammal, probably a rabbit. RAT is a rat, MUS is a mouse, IPR means intraperitoneal dose (inside the stomach lining).
The dosages are in milligrams, so 6500 mg PER KILO will cause death in a mammal...that is 6.5 grams you would have to eat! Toxicology Toxicity data
ORL-MAM LD50 6500 mg kg-1
ORL-RAT LD50 3250 mg kg-1
ORL-MUS LD50 2400 mg kg-1
IPR-MUS LD50 150 mg kg-1
ORL-RBT LD50 2230 mg kg-1
ORL-GPG LD50 4000 mg kg-1
From what I've read and been told the Polycarbonate materials we use every day are perfectly safe to use. IF you microwave your food or drink in these, day after day after day, then you MIGHT leach out a mg or two in about a year...you'll breath in more carcinogens by walking down the street...
Too funny!
Needs the “!”, but that’s a good start.
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