by Alicia MacLeay
It seems like every week or month a new study finds a possible link between the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A (BPA) and some health concern: breast cancer, fetal development, nervous system, obesity, male sexual dysfunction, memory, behavior…
So, whenever I see a friend's plastic water bottle, especially an old one (you know, a well-loved one covered in stickers and scratches), I flip the bottle over (screw the lid on first!) and check to see if it's BPA-laden or not. I also do this at store displays. In the case of aluminum bottles, I look inside to see if the epoxy lining is the old shiny one containing BPA or the new mustard-colored lining containing I-don't-know-what.
If there's BPA, I tell the friend (in what I hope is a nice, non-meddlesome way).
By now, with all the coverage BPA has had in the past two years, I figured that anyone who wanted to switch out his or her old #7/polycarbonate water bottles already had done so, and if you still used one it was by choice.
Not true. While visiting my very own brother this weekend, I discovered that not one, but both of his water bottles were old #7 PC's. They even said PC for polycarbonate on the bottom. And he didn't even notice (maybe he should visit Trailspace more). The upside is that I bought him two new water bottles for Hanukah that very day: a Camelbak Stainless Steel and a Nalgene Tritan model. His endocrine system can thank me later.
Water bottles make excellent gifts, because even non-outdoorsy people will use them daily. And outdoorsy folks will get double duty out of them, using them for the trail and around town and at home. Just don't buy anyone more water bottles than they need. No one—even extremely active people—needs a huge pile of them, no matter how cute or cool the bottle; a few decent ones in different sizes will do.
My personal preference is for a stainless steel number. Stainless steel is non-leaching and recyclable, if/when it needs to be replaced, and it doesn't require a liner. Stanley, Klean Kanteen, and Nalgene/Guyout Designs all make ones I like and regularly use. I just bought my son a very cute Camelbak kid's bottle (with dinosaurs!) for school and outdoor activities.
My second choice is one made from non-BPA plastic, like Tritan or HDPE, or a soft plastic reservoir or bottle, like the Platypus SoftBottle. You can argue till the cows come home about whether these plastics will be proven safe in the long term, but sometimes you need a plastic sport bottle or reservoir, and you have to go with what you know at the time.
So, if you need a gift idea for relatives or friends, start surreptitiously flipping their water bottles over. You might turn up a useful idea.
