Introduction
In listening to one of Lewis Black's delightful rants on 'bottled water' at one of his HBO specials, I'm reminded of a quote which said, "People seem to get nostalgic about a lot of things they weren't so crazy about the first time around."
Although his monologue was merely for comic effect, it really gets you to think about how pointless it is to reminisce about the past (that you weren't too thrilled to begin with in the first place) and how annoying people who carry a bottle of water around are, as if they're in the middle of the freekin' Mojave desert.
And if that's not enough, the controversy with using polycarbonate bottles to bottle this precious resource called 'water' doesn't make this topic particularly a popular one at the dinner table, the watercooler or anywhere else.
Bottled Water (er… BPA Water!!!) if you will
Polycarbonate bottles are everywhere, and in regular use by folks who would like to avoid disposable plastic bottles (in their race to save the planet, perhaps) used to store water.
Watercoolers, baby bottles, sippy cups, sport bottles, tumblers and rocks glasses are just a few on a long list of products that have been made with polycarbonate plastic. Even though, their biggest advantages lie in being reusable for a long time, unbreakable and very portable due to its lightness of weight, the real issue is with Bisphenol A (BPA) which is the organic compound used to make these plastic products that has been known to be hazardous to human health from times as early as the 1930s.
BPA and its effects on human health
Linked to causing diseases such as cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, breast and prostate cancer and neuroblastoma while also causing obesity and neurological imbalances as well, the compound BPA is known to be an endocrine disruptor as well.
An eye raising discovery made in a study by the Department of Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in December 2009, was the link between prenatal BPA and the cases of externalizing behavior in two year old female children that is associated with symptoms such as hyperactivity, aggression and delinquency.
If that wasn't enough, another study conducted by the Department of Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in September 2009 which tried to substantiate the association between the use of polycarbonate beverage containers and and urinary BPA concentrations in humans, found that the concentration levels of BPA in urine samples had increased by almost two-thirds regardless of exposure to other BPA sources.
Alternatives to BPA Bottles
With more and more people (especially parents) concerned about this issue, several alternatives are available both online as well as in retail stores that have been manufactured by companies listed below such as:
1. EvenFlo
2. Green to Grow
3. Mambaby
4. Klean Kanteen
5. Medela
6. Thermos
In Closing
Even though several scientists and environmental organizations have requested (and in some cases, demanded) the ban on this compound to be made, some countries continue to ignore the research that has gone into validating the unsafe use of BPA in consumer products.
All this controversy has caused some manufacturers to stop using BPA to produce these bottles, and no matter what you think about who's crazy, the truth is that only time will tell whether folks are being paranoid or not.
So much for the craziness around bottled water… huh, Lewis?
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