We should have banned Bisphenol A twenty years ago

Over the last twenty years, scientists have built a mountain of evidence that Bisphenol A, the key ingredient in polycarbonate plastic, should scare the daylights out of us. It should have been banned a long time ago, as a precautionary measure, but regulators were asleep at the switch — allowing the chemical industry to run roughshod over them.

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Unfortunately, a mix of deception and apathy has left us exposed for decades. Last year, a highly-biased government panel pulled a snow job that would make the Tobacco Industry proud: They claimed that Bisphenol A is not a cause for concern two weeks after scientists issued a damning report about the chemical. Their trickery bought the chemical industry months of slack, until the Canadian government announced that it may ban baby bottles made from the questionable substance. Soon thereafter, Wal-Mart announced that it would no longer stock polycarbonate baby bottles and Nalgene Outdoor Products agreed to stop making their trademark water bottles.

I have a Nalgene bottle but use it rarely, such as when I’m playing soccer. I’ve heard that BPA tends to leak out of the bottles when the plastic is in contatct with hot liquids or during washing with detergent. So if you wash your water bottle with soap, make sure you dry it thoroughly before refilling.