The perils of the plastic water bottle
by Stevie Bee

You might think you’re doing the right thing by refilling that plastic PET water bottle you have cluttering up the reuse/recycle cupboard instead of buying a new one. You probably think it’s a good idea to extend its life by using it as your carry-around water bottle. Well, it may not be such a good idea after all.

All plastics are not the same. There are seven groupings of plastic – you’d be aware of the number in the recycle logo on the bottom of the container. It appears some are better suited for food and drink than others (see options below). And some could be potentially hazardous.

There’s now a steady stream of peer-reviewed research on the adverse effects of certain chemicals in plastics that leach into our bodies from everyday plastic objects. While the research doesn’t slam all plastics, it does question what types of plastic we use to package and transport our food and drink.

The typical still water bottle is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE, and marked #1), the most common resin used in disposable bottles. They’re usually recycled or trashed in parks and beaches. But you see people refilling them over and over again. While such bottles may be safe if used only once, when they are in less-than-perfect condition, they’re potentially a problem. As #1 bottles are washed out and reused, they can be scratched and/or dinged, and chemicals can leak from the tiny cracks and crevices that develop over time. Those chemicals include DEHA, a possible human carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disruptor. Also, because the plastic is porous it’s possible you’ll get a swill of harmful bacteria with each gulp if you reuse #1 plastic bottles. These bottles are meant to be single-use.

The problem isn’t confined to these water bottles; there may also be a problem with the typically light blue plastic office drinking fountain. That fountain is made from polycarbonate (#7). The US Centers for Disease Control has found two compounds – bisphenol A (BPA), a building block of polycarbonate, and phthalates, used in PVC (polyvinyl chloride, #3, although rarely labelled) – in the urine of a majority of Americans tested. Both chemicals are short-lived once they enter the environment, but they're being scrutinised for their potential to mimic and disrupt our hormones – even before we're born.

"Today there are no babies born without measurable levels of phthalates," says Dr Shanna Swan, director of the Center for Reproductive Epidemiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Phthalates, which are used to give flexibility to PVC, turn up in bath and teething toys, shower curtains, upholstery, flooring, medical equipment, and countless other products, including cosmetics. Animal studies have linked phthalates to the same genital abnormalities that are now among the most common birth defects in American baby boys.

"We're not yet sure what level of exposure produces these adverse effects, but they are a real concern," explains Dr Paul Foster, a senior researcher at the US National Toxicology Program. Similarly inescapable is BPA, which seeps out of polycarbonate plastic when it's heated or exposed to acids and also as it ages. Apart from water coolers, polycarbonate is also used in baby bottles, food packaging and utensils, coffeemakers, kitchen appliances, and numerous other products. It mimics the effects of estrogen and has been linked to prostate cancer and precancerous breast tissue in animal studies. Low doses have prompted chromosomal abnormalities in human uterine cells in vitro. And, as shown by headline-grabbing studies, BPA also appears to cause mice exposed in the womb to be predisposed to obesity.

According to the Environment California Research & Policy Center, which reviewed 130 studies on the topic, BPA has been linked to breast and uterine cancer, an increased risk of miscarriage, and decreased testosterone levels. BPA can also wreak havoc on children’s developing systems. Most experts agree the amount of BPA that could leach into food and drinks through normal handling is probably very small, but there are concerns about the cumulative effect of small doses.

A University of Cincinnati College of Medicine study found that the hotter the liquid, the faster polycarbonate plastic bottles release toxins. Researchers found that plastic bottles holding boiling water released BPA up to 55 times faster than those containing room-temperature water. Baby formula is commonly boiled in preparation, so it's likely that very hot formula could leach high amounts of BPA from baby bottles. However, the researchers do not know how much BPA humans would have to consume before it became harmful.

Leading BPA researcher, Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri-Columbia, never uses plastic dishes for hot food or in the microwave. Dr Theo Colborn, a pioneer of endocrine-disruption research, steers clear of plastic food containers. "I put everything into glass," she says. Other researchers are also cautious. "I don't want to induce panic, but I think we should be addressing women of childbearing age," says Foster. Because phthalates and BPA seem to have the greatest impact in the womb, he and Swan suggest that women who are pregnant or planning to conceive take the most precautions. "These fetal effects are permanent and irreversible, while impacts of adult exposure appear to be reversible," explains Swan.

Fortunately, BPA is quite easy to avoid during pregnancy, says Dr Hugh Taylor, chief of reproductive endocrinology at the Yale School of Medicine. He recommends expectant women avoid polycarbonate food containers (#7), skip canned foods, and delay getting any dental sealants unless absolutely necessary. Phthalates are a bit trickier to avoid, since they have so many applications. But Swan recommends avoiding PVC food containers.

The US Food and Drug Administration believes that when plastics are used as intended, any substances in the plastic that may migrate to the food or water are at a level it considers safe. The American Chemistry Council goes further and urges consumers to ignore the "scare stories”. But public concern is already changing the marketplace. The European Union recently banned three kinds of phthalates in products for kids. San Francisco bars products for young children that contain certain phthalates; California and other US states are considering similar bans; and Mattel and other US toymakers have eliminated phthalates from teething rings.

It’s probably wise to employ this maxim: it pays to err on the side of caution – especially when the scientific community is unsure and wants more studies and the product isn’t crucial to life and there are obvious alternatives.

Options
1 Use glass or the lighter and less-likely-to-break stainless steel to carry water and other liquids. If you prefer plastic, safer choices include bottles crafted from HDPE (#2), low-density polyethylene (LDPE, #4) or polypropylene (PP, #5).

2 KNOW THE CODE. Put simply, favour 2, 4, 5 for liquids (and food); avoid 1 (for reuse), avoid 3, 6 and 7 altogether. Nalgene and other US manufacturers are reformulating their polycarbonate (#7) to offer BPA-free water bottles. You might want to check with your water cooler supplier.

The wider impact. That bottle of water is up to 2000 times more energy intensive than just turning on the tap. Researchers at the Pacific Institute in California found that bottle production alone wastes 50 million barrels of oil a year. Add to that energy the energy needed to process the water, label the bottles, fill the bottles, seal the bottles, transport the bottles, cool them prior to sale . . . well, you get the idea. Bottled-water drinkers worldwide in 2007 squandered the equivalent of 96-162 million barrels of oil; for perspective, imagine each bottle is a quarter full of oil.

The Garbage Patch Bird The remains of an albatross chicklying on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand that is one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries. Although more than 3000 kms from the nearest continent, it is in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vast ocean swirl of plastic debris. Nesting chicks fill their bellies with plastic as their parents collect and feed them bits that look to them like food. As a result, tens of thousands of albatross chicks die from starvation, choking, internal bleeding and poisoning each year. See more of Chris Jordan's Midway photos at chrisjordan.com Source: Mother Jones Jan-feb 2010

It’s the equivalent of an oil spill, only solid, and far more deadly. The average liquid spill of petroleum will kill marine life for a year, maybe 10. But it could take 400 years for that petroleum-based six-pack ring holding your beer to break down. Each year, undegraded plastic chokes to death some 100,000 whales, dolphins, seals, manatees, plus an unknown number of sea turtles and about two million birds. And once it has broken down, it becomes deadlier still.

The world produces 115 million metric tons of plastic a year. Ten percent wends its way to sea; 20% of which has been tossed off ships and oil rigs; the rest comes via floods and sewage, storm water and litter. Remote islands around the world are covered with hectares of lighters, pens, bottles and tiny pellets of preproduction plastic called nurdles that compose 11 percent of beach litter. The vast eddies of the ocean basins, known as gyres—once called the Horse Latitudes and avoided by sailors—are now full of plastic and riotous with new chemistry. The Texas-sized "great garbage patch" in the North Pacific Gyre holds an estimated three million metric tons of mostly plastic garbage, six times the mass of the plankton found there. Most has broken into microplastics that chemically bond with PCBS, DDT, and endocrine disrupters to make this area a million times more toxic than surrounding seas. Suspended in surface waters, those plankton-sized flakes are mistakenly consumed by jellyfish and small fish that are in turn consumed by bigger fish, taking the toxic payload further and further up the marine food chain. In the end, the plastic comes back to pollute all of us.

SOURCES
• Where Plastics Go to Kill: Beware the revenge of the nurdles Julia Whitty Mother Jones May-June 2009
• Tapped Out The Green Guide By Solvie Karlstrom Aug. 1, 2007
• Practical Values: Hard to Break By Elizabeth Grossman Mother Jones Sep. 30, 2007
• Your Water Bottle Is One-Quarter Oil By Julia Whitty Mother Jones Feb. 27, 2009
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jan/30/sciencenews.health