Plastic: The Toxic of the Future

Newsweek came again today. (I know, shocking since it is a WEEKLY magazine called NewsWEEK.) Last week, it warned me about Spokeo. This week, it’s plastics. As I reported before, I am trying extremely hard to avoid chemicals in my personal products and eat organic at home. I even switched to a Nalgene bottle at work instead of throwing away two plastic water bottles a day. I thought I was on the right track.

Apparently, hard plastic like my Nalgene bottle is akin to rolling around in freshly fertilized grass for the afternoon (and no, not the poop fertilizer). Bisphenol A (BPA) is seeping out of the plastic into my water and mimicking my hormones thereby screwing with my future potential children (and maybe even child-bearing???). This was not happy news for me (some scientists dispute it). Older bottles are worse because more toxic crap can leech out of scratches and heat from the dishwasher breaks the plastic down even more. In an effort to not create more waste, I am still using a Nalgene bottle from when I lived in Boulder (it was part of the uniform there). I left Boulder in 2001. The bottle is OLD. It is its own mini-superfund site.

How am I suppose to drink water? A glass bottle is the most obvious solution, but it’s breakable, and I’m clumsy. (I can’t even count the number of times I’ve dropped the Nalgene, but the permanent gouges around the base attest to it.) I found a website that says Sigg bottles are the best, but they are made from aluminum and my mom told me aluminum causes Alzheimer’s. The Sigg bottles are lined with enamel so the aluminum doesn’t leech into my brain, but what if it gets scratched?

There is talk of making a baby in our house lately so I am more aware of things mimicking my hormones or depleting a future son’s sperm count (thank you, phthalates). I know I can’t live in a bubble of non-toxic goodness because the bubble would be plastic (and lord only knows what I’d be breathing), but I’m working on it. It would be nice if the EPA helped a little, too.

** I’ll update my beauty quest soon (it is MUCH harder than I thought it would be – and expensive!).