Double Blind

The war against trans-fatty acids has long since been over, so there needs to be another crusade to fight against now that everybody else is talking about global warming. So the latest case is going to be fought over whether hard-shelled plastic water bottles will release harmful chemicals.

Mountain Equipment Co-Op (a large Canadian retailer specializing in selling environmentally-friendly outdoor clothing and equipment) decided to ban the hard plastic bottles that you would typically put water in, with the following reason:

We have decided to stop selling polycarbonate water bottles and food containers pending the federal government’s review of bisphenol-A (BPA). These items are not defective and have not been recalled. We have stopped selling them due to regulatory uncertainty surrounding BPA, and because our members have expressed increasing concern about this potentially harmful chemical.

Shortly after, Lululemon (a company specializing in over-priced athletic wear, with a correspondingly overpriced market capitalization) announced that they would stop stocking shelves of the product this January (presumably to clear out the inventory they have on hand, which is a highly hypocritical action). They said they will be re-stocking with acrylic bottles, which they presumably determined to be 100% safe.

Continuing on the article, we have the political opportunists:

Lululemon was congratulated by Environmental Defence for its decision Tuesday.

The Toronto-based environmental group said it expects other large Canadian retailers to follow suit soon.

So what’s the science behind these accusations? The speculation is that the manufacturing of polycarbonate containers are derived from Bisphenol A, and when you drink from polycarbonate, you would be drinking a finite amount of the compound. Since certain concentrations of Bisphenol A can have effects on humans, one should stop drinking from hard plastic bottles. Apparently storing heated water or acidic liquids accelerates the process of leaching Bisphenol A from polycarbonate bottles.

This speculation is being tested by Health Canada, but the relevant information will be released in May 2008. The Germans and European Union have already done testing relating to polycarbonate baby bottles, but declared them safe. There is not a good reason to suspect that the Canadian authorities will find anything different.

So now we have the environmental groups that are trying to raise hell on an issue that has, at best, a marginal safety issue, with little information other than the fact that Bisphenol A is dangerous, and since polycarbonate bottles are made from Bisphenol A that polycarbonate bottles must be dangerous as well. This is kind of like saying salt is bad for you since it contains sodium and chlorine, and both of those aren’t good for you either.

My hunch is that polycarbonate bottles, at least for everyday household use, are perfectly safe. My additional hunch is that when you stick polycarbonate bottles in the microwave and superheat liquids inside, you will cause leaching of plastic residue to the liquid.

The real question at this stage is whether hysteria takes over and there is a crusade against polycarbonate bottles, or whether common sense will prevail and the message will be “don’t melt plastic and drink the contents inside”.

There are valid environmental crusades to believe in (e.g. reducing lead and mercury exposure), but the war on polycarbonate bottles is not one.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.