512750 Thu Apr 24 16:12:50 -0700 2008 10 29 Not About Food 0 3627330 Although many retailers moved to stop selling re-usable water bottles and other plastic containers contain potentially harmful chemical bisphenol A, the Canadian government has warned that any use may be banned. http://www.ctvbc.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080417/bisphenol_products_080417?hub=BritishColumbiaHome http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/bpa http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/action/bisphenolfaq.htm Google yielded a little information on this for me. As the sites say, BPA is used as a lining for cans, as well as for containers. Can we definitively say bisphenol A is bad, and all polycarbonate plastic use is bad? Is using a Nalgene-type water bottle harmful to ones health, or is it only when said container is heated (in a microwave)? Basically, should I throw out my Nalgene bottle, and get all my friends to do the same? Should we stop uses our clear, polycarbonate storage bins at work (Camwear food storage containers)? Thu Apr 24 16:12:52 -0700 2008 161585 miss_bennet 1 3631866 I am thinking it can't be a bad thing to start phasing plastics out anyway....with the byob trend, glass containers or steel thermos' etc. I'm a newbie to the BPA topic....was none the wiser until someone told me this week that i probably shouldn't be using my hard plastic bottle. Needless to say, it was a bottle that came with a diet program i'd left about 1.5 years ago.....and despite the fact that they've continued to call me endlessly during that time period, and very recently with "great new offers"...they failed to mention that they had recalled their plastic bottles. One more reason not to go back. I also try to use fewer processed foods these days,.....so not a lot of canned soups and such get opened in my home...but i do still use them (one corn can i opened today, did not have a plastic lining)....maybe we have gone too far into the convenience realm with these things as well as plastics in general......and it's mother nature's way of giving us a little wake up call..... all that being said, i kind of got the impression that most harm could come from heating the containers such as would be the case with canned goods or baby bottles...but it's enough of a concern to make me think twice about these things. Sat Apr 26 11:00:39 -0700 2008 3627330 153184 im_nomad 1 4239283 Can't comment about your storage bins at work, but I've stopped using my Nalgene bottles in favor of stainless steel water bottles, I've stopped using any plastics at home in favor of glass, and try to minimize the use of canned products. Since there is no definitive answer, but certainly numerous red flags, my personal decision is to avoid any and all plastics to the extent that I can. In the chemical and toxin saturated world in which we live, why not minimize your exposure to the known risks? Thu Dec 11 11:54:32 -0800 2008 3627330 139725 janniecooks 2 4244288 Are the stainless steel bottles lined with anything? Sat Dec 13 12:28:54 -0800 2008 4239283 12139 paulj 3 4245025 Some of them are. We've been very happy with Klean Kanteen which advertise their products as lining free. http://www.kleankanteen.com/ We actually got ours from ebay, pretty inexpensively. They've held up very well through daily use and abuse. Sat Dec 13 20:01:28 -0800 2008 4244288 80141 ccbweb 3 4245352 no lining in my bottles, like ccweb mine are Klean Kanteen. Sun Dec 14 04:18:58 -0800 2008 4244288 139725 janniecooks 1 4244310 Its everywhere - they even line the inside of cans of tomato product with it to stop corrosion. Its not allowed on other cans, but they have yet to figure out how to stop the corrosion. From what I've read - it breaks down over time so something used once or twice is ok - I personally got rid of my nalgene. I think long term exposure to that type of stuff affects us. By the time they are telling us there is a problem - there probabaly is a big one. Sat Dec 13 12:37:15 -0800 2008 3627330 78681 coastie 2 4244395 But pinning down the effect of long term exposure is tricky. Say a bunch of us develop a particular type of cancer 20 years from now. How is anyone going to determine whether it was caused by BPA, PTFE, cell phones, power lines, aluminum, chromium or nickel from stainless steel, carbonized oil reacting with iron, melamine, or excessive time on Chowhound? Sat Dec 13 13:29:08 -0800 2008 4244310 12139 paulj 3 4244414 WAY tricky - some of its going to get us some isn't..... I just figure by the time they are putting out warnings - something seroius has been noted. Our changes in usage are costing someone a lot of money. That type of stuff isn't the focus of major network news without there being something to at least consider. I've developed all these stupid allergies and have high levels of lead and mercury One theory, and I stress theory, is that all these excessive components in our life are causing me to be hypersensitive to lots of stuff. I'm not saying this is true - I just think there is way too much crap in our food in our packaging and in our air. Sat Dec 13 13:43:39 -0800 2008 4244395 78681 coastie 4 4245085 High levels of lead and mercury suggest exposure to those elements at some time in the past. Plastics that do not contain them would not affect your intake of these metals. In fact they could be beneficial. Plastic pipes, with Teflon joint tape, replace copper pipes with lead based solder. Those pipes, in turn, replaced the all lead pipes of the Romans. More recently lead was used in paint and gasoline. The use of mercury is much more regulated than when I was a kid. We could play with it in science class; most thermometers used it. There was a time when mercury salts were used to 'cure' certain social diseases. Mercury was also used to extract gold, and to make hatters mad. Mercury in fish is largely a by product of sloppy disposal of industrial waste. Sat Dec 13 20:41:20 -0800 2008 4244414 12139 paulj 5 4245108 Sorry didn't mean to imply I got heavy metal issues from plastics......simply that we absorb things and that they in turn can effect how other things effect us. ( Grew up drinking creek water, they mined nough said.) I think the Romans is a good analogy - they had no idea what the lead was doing. Same may be said about many things in our environment, both manmade and naturally occurring. Sat Dec 13 20:59:06 -0800 2008 4245085 78681 coastie