In case you’ve been hiding under a rock lately and have missed all the news on the government’s warning about plastic water bottles, here’s an update for you. It’s especially important for those cottagers, myself included, who bring bottled water to the cottage.

Here are five things you should know about plastic water bottles:

1. A synthetic compound called Bisphenol A is used to make polycarbonate plastic food containers as well as clear plastic reusable water bottles
2. As the water bottles heat up (i.e. in the summer time when the cottage is closed up) Bisphenol A gets leached into the water
3. Bisphenol A has been linked to:
   1. increased prostate weight
   2. decline in testosterone
   3. hasten the development of cancer
4. To determine if the water container is made with polycarbonate flip over the bottom. If it has a PC underneath the triangle, it’s made of polycarbonate and contains Bisphenol A. If it has a “7″ inside the triangle, then it may be may contain polycarbonate.
5. Installing a water-treatment system costs anywhere from $400 - $700 (according to Cottage Life Magazine) but the cost per litre is about $0.04 - $0.08.

Here’s to safe drinking water.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.