Portable Water
In last week’s column I lectured you about bottled water. I waved my hands all around and tried to convince you that it is way less eco-friendly and no healthier or safer than tap water. In fact, I informed you, much of the bottled water we drink (including Aquafina and Dasani) is nothing more than enthusiastically marketed tap water. I encouraged you to drink the water from our pipes. Remember?
At the risk of sounding egotistical, but in the interest of full and honest disclosure, I need to admit that I am aware of the far-reaching influence I possess. I do see the power this weekly column affords me. Please know that I do not wield this power lightly. I know, for example, that when I suggested that you stop drinking bottled water, you did. Right then. You poured whatever was left in your # 1 plastic bottle onto a thirsty looking plant, dropped the bottle into a recycling bin and you haven’t looked back.
Ummm… but here’s the thing. I may have left out a few pieces of information that were important. I may have poisoned you. Sorry about that. It’s not the tap water. It’s what you put it in.
As soon as you finished reading this column last week, you rode your bike or carpooled straight to REI and bought a Nalgene “Lexan” water bottle, didn’t you? You thought, “Well, shoot, now that I am drinking tap water and saving the environment, I need a water bottle that will broadcast my eco-grooviness to the world.” And because you are perceptive and kind of hip, you knew that the official water bottle of the eco-groovy is the Nalgene (wrapped, for some unknown reason in a single strip of duct tape and clipped prominently with a $12 rock-climbing caribiner). So that’s what you bought, (along with a red handkerchief to tie around your dog’s neck and a topographical map of your neighborhood) and you have been drinking from your Nalgene ever since. At all meals. Even in restaurants.
I have bad news. According to the Green Guide (www.greenguide.com – it’s handy!), your eco-groovy water bottle is poisonous. It is made out of #7 polycarbonate plastics (Look in the little recycling symbol on the bottom. See the number?), which according to frightening new studies can cause obesity and breast cancer even in low doses. The effects can even skip a generation. Pregnant lab mice that were exposed to the chemicals that leach from #7 plastics apparently developed chromosome abnormalities that caused birth defects and miscarriages in their grandchildren.
OK, now, you know me. I am not one to be alarmist or melodramatic. But… run for your lives! When I discovered this information about the water bottle I have been drinking from for years, the water bottle that defines me as a tree-hugger, I pulled it down from the shelf and attacked it with a hammer. Betrayer! Back Stabber! Contaminator of generations of lab mice! It bounced up and hit me in the head. I wonder if the chemicals cause problems with hand-eye coordination, too? Or maybe with impulse control?
Even if you didn’t rush out and buy a Nalgene, you are still in for it. Maybe you thought you could get away with just reusing that one Aquafina water bottle. That would solve the problem of portable potable water, right? Sorry. Those bottles are made from #1 plastics, polyethylene terephthalates (try saying that without spraying crackers everywhere). When these bottles are re-used they leach carcinogenic and hormone disrupting chemicals and a heavy metal – antimony - that is a lung, skin and eye irritant in large doses.
So what are you supposed to do (besides live off of Dr. Pepper)? Start by returning your Nalgene. REI will take anything back (even your nasty 3 year-old Teva sandals). And, there are safer plastics available. Buy those. Plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are supposed to be OK based on what smart people know at this point. Or, you can use stainless steel canteens, or your ten-gallon hat. Or, have your heard of these special cups they have at Crate and Barrel? They are made of glass. You could use those. Finally, you can take heart in the fact that there are so many other potential causes of cancer out there that there is no way that the tiny amounts of chemicals leaching from your water bottles will get you first. Hey, you might not even die of cancer. You could die in a car wreck, or of a heart attack, or from a dumb Nalgene bashing you in the head.
In last week’s column I lectured you about bottled water. I waved my hands all around and tried to convince you that it is way less eco-friendly and no healthier or safer than tap water. In fact, I informed you, much of the bottled water we drink (including Aquafina and Dasani) is nothing more than enthusiastically marketed tap water. I encouraged you to drink the water from our pipes. Remember?
At the risk of sounding egotistical, but in the interest of full and honest disclosure, I need to admit that I am aware of the far-reaching influence I possess. I do see the power this weekly column affords me. Please know that I do not wield this power lightly. I know, for example, that when I suggested that you stop drinking bottled water, you did. Right then. You poured whatever was left in your # 1 plastic bottle onto a thirsty looking plant, dropped the bottle into a recycling bin and you haven’t looked back.
Ummm… but here’s the thing. I may have left out a few pieces of information that were important. I may have poisoned you. Sorry about that. It’s not the tap water. It’s what you put it in.
As soon as you finished reading this column last week, you rode your bike or carpooled straight to REI and bought a Nalgene “Lexan” water bottle, didn’t you? You thought, “Well, shoot, now that I am drinking tap water and saving the environment, I need a water bottle that will broadcast my eco-grooviness to the world.” And because you are perceptive and kind of hip, you knew that the official water bottle of the eco-groovy is the Nalgene (wrapped, for some unknown reason in a single strip of duct tape and clipped prominently with a $12 rock-climbing caribiner). So that’s what you bought, (along with a red handkerchief to tie around your dog’s neck and a topographical map of your neighborhood) and you have been drinking from your Nalgene ever since. At all meals. Even in restaurants.
I have bad news. According to the Green Guide (www.greenguide.com – it’s handy!), your eco-groovy water bottle is poisonous. It is made out of #7 polycarbonate plastics (Look in the little recycling symbol on the bottom. See the number?), which according to frightening new studies can cause obesity and breast cancer even in low doses. The effects can even skip a generation. Pregnant lab mice that were exposed to the chemicals that leach from #7 plastics apparently developed chromosome abnormalities that caused birth defects and miscarriages in their grandchildren.
OK, now, you know me. I am not one to be alarmist or melodramatic. But… run for your lives! When I discovered this information about the water bottle I have been drinking from for years, the water bottle that defines me as a tree-hugger, I pulled it down from the shelf and attacked it with a hammer. Betrayer! Back Stabber! Contaminator of generations of lab mice! It bounced up and hit me in the head. I wonder if the chemicals cause problems with hand-eye coordination, too? Or maybe with impulse control?
Even if you didn’t rush out and buy a Nalgene, you are still in for it. Maybe you thought you could get away with just reusing that one Aquafina water bottle. That would solve the problem of portable potable water, right? Sorry. Those bottles are made from #1 plastics, polyethylene terephthalates (try saying that without spraying crackers everywhere). When these bottles are re-used they leach carcinogenic and hormone disrupting chemicals and a heavy metal – antimony - that is a lung, skin and eye irritant in large doses.
So what are you supposed to do (besides live off of Dr. Pepper)? Start by returning your Nalgene. REI will take anything back (even your nasty 3 year-old Teva sandals). And, there are safer plastics available. Buy those. Plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are supposed to be OK based on what smart people know at this point. Or, you can use stainless steel canteens, or your ten-gallon hat. Or, have your heard of these special cups they have at Crate and Barrel? They are made of glass. You could use those. Finally, you can take heart in the fact that there are so many other potential causes of cancer out there that there is no way that the tiny amounts of chemicals leaching from your water bottles will get you first. Hey, you might not even die of cancer. You could die in a car wreck, or of a heart attack, or from a dumb Nalgene bashing you in the head.
posted by kyle at 8:37 PM
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