Is Your Water Bottle Safe for you?
Drinking water bottles are everywhere in United States. People purchase $22 billion plastic per year only in America that makes 70 million daily uses of water bottles. (According to butelka na wodę).
You go and pick up water bottle for you at the gas station or local store as you travel to work or evening walk at the central park. Kids have drinking bottles with them on the way to school or soccer game. Hence the tiny water carrier is part of our life in our every day to day activity. Water is a necessity for life and is a safe alternative for sugary juices for kids, but have you ever thought that the water bottles you and your kids are carrying with you are safe for you and your family? Most of the case “No” is the answer, but you need to start asking this question after reading the perils the tiny plastic bottles carry (along with water) for not only our family’s health but for the environment also.
Wide Spread use of Plastic Bottles:
As stated above plastic bottles are part of our life, and it is because of the convenience of the use they offer us. These cheap and easy to carry bottles can go anywhere with you in your pocket or your purse. You don’t have to bring them back home when they empty. You can dump them anywhere at the trash can or waste bin. Here comes the environment hazard. If you are that much eco friendly or just thrifty enough to use the water bottle again, you can refill it for later drinking or storing purposes. People refill water bottles at office through nearby water dispenser, or from the closest water cooler in the park while jogging. But is the refilling practice safe to use? This is a big question mark for the health and safety issues related to the plastic water bottles.
Source: Butelki ze stali nierdzewnej
Health Hazards:
Plastic water bottles have been in use since more than twenty years now. And for twenty years they have been spoiling our health. Many anonymous researches on the internet charge them for carcinogenic substances but we don’t like to quote them due to their no sufficient proves provided. Here are few reasons that make your plastic bottle unsafe for you and your environment;
The Material Use: Majority of plastic water and beverage bottles are made out of polyethylene terephthalate material generally called PET or PETE. Scientists and USFDA standards are unanimous at stating the PET material safe for water storing at room temperature. But this ideal temperature is not available all the time from filling to storing, transpiration and even after purchase. Many people leave their water bottles in car. The whole story claiming the safety of plastic bottles changes as soon as temperature rises. Scientists agree that they water in the plastic bottle left all day long in hot car is dangerous to drink. Reason being the chemicals these bottles leach into water when the bottles are warm.
Chemical Leech from PET bottle: The higher temperature makes plastic bottle to leach chemicals into the water. One of those chemicals includes antimony, whose higher concentration may cause vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. Another leeching chemical notorious to cause neurological and behavioral issues is Biphenol A, commonly termed as BPA. The chemical is researched to affect female reproductive system, brain cell damage and loss of immune system. There is all lot of fuss in the market for the BPA free water bottles due to the confirmed health hazard BPA is causing to human breed.
Bacterial Growth: The plastic bottle provides medium for the growth of bacteria at a large scale. The foul smell you feel in refilled bottle is due to the bacterial growth in the bottle. These are the bacteria of your mouth that you deposit to the PET bottle as soon you drink from it. The refilling of the bottles gives a nursery for the growth of bacteria. Only thorough washing with hot water makes the bottles bacteria free and reuse able. Thus you may not be refilling the water bottle once you emptied it, before you rinse it thoroughly.
Environment Hazards:
The plastic bottles need specific treatments to make them usable again. Many waste management firms do not have these facilities, (or do not want to waste money on plastic bottle recycling due to higher upfront costs). The dumping of plastic bottles thus comes at the expense of environment hazard in the shape of non recycle able material used. Only 17% of the water bottles are treated for recycling purposes that makes 60 million plastic bottles thrown away on daily basis. The trash cans do not have recycling cans installed with them for recycling of plastic bottles. Very few states are operating waste management and recycling programs for plastic bottles. Half population of America does not have curbside pickup of recyclables. These scarcities of resources make the plastic water bottles a big peril for the environment.
The data was collected from: https://www.mojabutelka.pl/produkt/butelka-na-wode-retap03
Healthy Alternatives:
For all those health and environment hazards associated with plastic bottles, there are few healthy alternatives that should be perused at national level;
Glass Bottles: Glass bottles have always been safest to be used for storing food contents for longer period of time. The fragile nature of the glass bottle made its use shunned but that came at the expense of all the above health and environment hazards. The classic milk glass bottle is still safe for you to store and drink water and also it is recycle able and eco friendly.
Stainless Steel Water Bottle: The glass bottles do get confined to home due to less mobility it offers being heavy and fragile. When it comes to jogging in the park or going on the soccer game, stainless steel bottle is your healthy alternative to the plastic bottle. It offers no chemical seepage and is durable. The stainless steel water bottles are becoming fashion symbol in parks and also give message to people that you are health conscious and are aware of the perils of plastic bottles.