Water Bottle Public Service Announcement

I was watching the Today Show yesterday, and there was a segment on water bottles - which types are safe and unsafe. I was blown away by the findings!

On the bottom of all water bottles, (whether they be the hard, Nalgene-type reusable water bottles or the sealed, buy in a gas station type water bottles), there is a triangle with a number inside it. The most common numbers are 1 (purchase, drink, toss water bottles), and 3, 6 and 7 (usually found on the water bottles you buy empty for the purpose of reuse).

Scientists have discovered that bottles with a 1 on the bottom are good for only one use, and that after that, BPA's (Bisphenol - an industrial chemical used to make polycarbonate plastic) begin to leak into the water you drink. It is also now recommended to avoid numbers 3, 6 and 7 all together because the BPA level is high enough to possibly affect reproductive systems and cause other health problems.

Check your water bottles! Jeff and I have always kept the larger Gatorade bottles and refilled them for our food storage - but they all have a #1 on the bottom, so we've disposed of them. There may not be a ton of research available yet on this topic, but enough for me to prefer being safe rather than sorry!

For more information, see (also contains links to the segment on the Today Show from yesterday and today):
http://zrecs.blogspot.com/2008/04/this-just-in-nalgene-announces-new-bpa.html