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Wikipedia says that:

Research is ongoing as to whether plastic water bottles can leach hazardous chemicals into the water, especially when heated.

And I know it's now fashionable for vendors to tout how their bottles are "Bespinol-A free (BPA-free)". But the manufacturing of plastics involves all sorts of toxic compounds and elements, regardless of BPA. So, I was wondering - what other compounds might leech from plastic bottles, and what can I do to avoid that or mitigate it?

Of course, a possible answer is "don't use plastic bottles", but let's assume that I am, and I want to either do something with my existing one or get a safer/more resilient one.

Note: I already know I should avoid increasing the risk by heating the bottle or keeping it in the sun.

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  • I don't think there's anything you can do other than not using plastic bottles.
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    May 5, 2018 at 15:00
  • I use glass drink bottles，doubled walled, to retain heat, but they invariably break. Either by being dropped, or being crushed inside luggage.
    – Graham Chiu
    May 6, 2018 at 0:10
  • @GrahamChiu Switch to stainless steel. Same double walled construction but mine is dented from being dropped, not broken.
    – Carey Gregory ♦
    May 6, 2018 at 4:05

1 Answer 1

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I think the best practice is:

  1. Limit contact time of water (or any other liquid) and bottle: since the total amount of any, bad or not, compound move from bottle to water is directly proportional to time contact, if we reduce the amount of time the water is inside the bottle, we can lower down the amount of toxic compound we drink.
  2. (if not only water) Avoid fatty or acid liquid because they are able to corrode the bottle, thus increase the rate at which other compounds go into the liquid.

NB: also metal bottles have an inner plastic coating. I don't know if all have it...

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5
  • 1. Mostly irrelevant, since the bottle is full most of the time - for me to have water to drink. Even if I let it drain, I only reduced the average exposure time by 50%. 2. It's a water bottle, so only water.
    – einpoklum
    Jun 26, 2018 at 21:27
  • You "think" the best practice is... is this due to reading? experience? Just throwing stuff out there? If you have some references to back these up, please add them to your answer.
    – JohnP
    Jun 27, 2018 at 14:45
  • @einpoklum reduce by 50% can't be considered as irrelevant.
    – mattia.b89
    Jun 27, 2018 at 19:43
  • @JohnP Point 1. comes from theory of mass transfer: there is a difference of concentration->flux. Point 2. comes from manual of my water bottle (decathlon.co.uk/500-flask-alu-15-l-black-id_8359128.html). And most important, confirmed by my personal experience.
    – mattia.b89
    Jun 27, 2018 at 19:46
  • There are many compounds that don't leach. And your point #2 is specific only to that model water bottle.
    – JohnP
    Jun 27, 2018 at 19:53

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