National Geographic Green Guide on the dangers of Bisphenol-A

Here is a pretty good article that lays out the issues and concerns with re-usable plastic bottles and the potential for harm from leaching of Bisphenol-A into water. The risk of harm seems to be most likely for women and especially for pregnant women and their unborn children.

The counter argument from the plastics industry, which is included in the article, is that you would have to drink a huge amount of water to ingest a significant amount of this chemical. But I think that most of us recognize that we are living in a highly toxic environment - no one exposure is going to be identifiable as an issue for concern, but most of us would like to reduce our exposure to harmful chemicals, precisely because we do not know which one might be the trigger, or the one exposure that turns out to be the tipping point for whatever unknown and seemingly unknowable health issues we or our loved ones might face.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/114/bpa#

I am not reprinting the entire article as NG charges for that privilege but here is a good quote:

"According to its critics, BPA mimics naturally occurring estrogen, a hormone that is part of the endocrine system, the body's finely tuned messaging service. "These hormones control the development of the brain, the reproductive system and many other systems in the developing fetus," says Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses. "The most harm is to the unborn or newborn child," vom Saal says. "

Anything that acts like estrogen could have significant effects and perhaps not only on younger women of child bearing age.

I am personally still looking for a re-usable plastic bottle that can be safely used. If anyone reading this has suggestions, please email me at "editor@turntotap.com" with any information you have. Until I find one I am sticking to Sigg bottles, which are extruded from a single piece of aluminum and have a non-reactive internal coating that has been tested to be 100% non-leaching.

I am also working on creating a database that includes calculations of the total energy and ctarbon effects of all different types of plastic and metal bottles, as well as different water sources, which will be published on this site when it's complete and vetted.