jambon

Hi ,

I am on the verge of dropping some cash on stainless steel water bottles as I have read some pretty startling things about Plastic bottles .

Even Bpa free / phtalantes free bottles still seep harmful chemicals apparently .

As with everything on the internet it is hard to get objective facts .

Would drinking out of a plastic bottle long term be dangerous to health ? Do I have to throw out my hydration bladder too ?

Here is one article saying its all baloney . I'm confused it's hard to figure out.



https://chronicleflask.com/2018/02/1...is-bpa-really/

And another arguing the opposite ;

https://www.prevention.com/health/he...-not-be-so-bad

https://science.howstuffworks.com/en...cience/bpa.htm

Revoltingest

Note that Camelback type bladders are made of plastic too. And because they're more flexible, this would mean a different material formulation, making them possibly worse. But I don't worry about such things because the water spends very little time in my bottles.

dcwldct

I'm not too worried with more modern plastic bottles. I understand the concern, and I try to avoid using too much plastic in food storage/cooking. However, a bike bottle that holds only water (or occasionally Gatorade) probably isn't going to make much of a difference.

Steel doesn't really seem like a viable alternative for biking since you can't squeeze them.

Saale

Look on the bright side, you might be able to sign up for women's competitions someday!

_ForceD_

As long as you empty your plastic bottle, and fill it just before your ride, I don't think there's anything to worry about. The chemicals leach into the fluid in the bottle over a period of time...days and weeks. Over the course of a ride of just a few hours, I don't think there is much leaching.

Dan

jambon

https://myplasticfreelife.com/2011/04/bpa-free-does-not-mean-safe-most-plastics-leach-hormone-disrupting-chemicals/

This is interesting too

northtexasbiker

No one here can possibly have enough information to give you an affirmative or negative on what's going to cause you long term harm.

alcjphil

This is an important point. I fill my bottles just before a ride and drink it within an hour or two. I might worry if the water was in there for a few days, but that never happens

GerryinHouston

"myplasticfreelife.com"...!! Definitely the site to go for umbiased information about plastics...
This!

pdlamb

This.


You don't drink bottled water, do you? The kind that's bottled miles away, trucked to a warehouse, shipped to a store, and sits in the store until you buy 24 bottles? Then sits around until you get to bottle #24?


Compare that to putting municipal (or well) water into a bottle and going for a ride. It's gone in two hours or less. Which scenario do you think lets more plasticizer leach into the water before you drink it?

DrIsotope

You must not live anywhere it gets hot. Because if you tried that here, you'd be dead.

Personal best: seven full 25oz bottles in under 3 hours. Seeing as no bottle had water in it for more than 30 minutes, I'm not too worried about any effects related to the plastic.

tagaproject6

Ah yes, internet research. The best research. Reminds of the "extensive" self-taught anti-vaccination researchers

Hiro11

The more I read about the whole BPA situation, the more I think it's alarmist BS. Anything is potentially carcinogenic, it's all a matter of degree. Note the increasing ever-insanity of California "carcinogen" labeling.

pdlamb

Excellent .gif!

Trakhak

Wish I'd thought to encourage guys on other teams to try training their bodies to use less water back when I was racing. Marginal gains!

On the other hand, I remember coaches in the 1960s making their guys train on no water and horse-pill-sized salt tablets. Then Gatorade came along, and suddenly the same coaches were telling everyone to drink as much of it as possible.

ThermionicScott 

I believe it's the same voter proposition as before; they just didn't think it all the way through. As often happens when you put things to a popular vote.

bogydave

I notice the plastic odor & taste
on the single walled bottles more than on double wall.
Not sure , maybe ultraviolet light has some effect.
I tried polar bottle in SoCal
Niticed no plastic odor or taste.
Have single wall bell bottles here, but noticed plastic odor & taste last few rides, ordered couple double wall polar bottles ????
Maybe Worth a try.
As plastic ages it seems to get worse ???

Also noticed if you fill about 1/3 full,
Freeze it ,
day of ride fill it up helps.
(Cold Slows chemical reactions)

hillyman

According to the messages I've been getting from Earth Day there's plastic in our water now. Haven't read into it because really only makes sense.

bobwysiwyg

Yup, wouldn't be worried about the container, most bottled water and tap water contain micro plastic and plastic fibers. No mention of long-term impact on us humans, but can't believe it's nutritious.

wphamilton

HS in the 70's I always declined the coaches' salt tablets, because it was pretty obvious (to me) that you didn't sweat out anything remotely as much salt as those tablets had during a track or football workout. Gatorade or whatever that stuff was, was "in" and colas were "out". Coaches had some funny notions back then. Oh, and don't drink more than a few swallows of water was another one.

CliffordK

I tend to avoid them. What a waste when one can simply walk over to the tap and fill a cup with water.

However, I believe the crinkly disposable bottles are polyethylene. One can find a few cycling water bottles made of the same stuff, but they're not very popular, and tend to turn crinkly. I've picked up a couple at thrift stores. I think some organizations give them out for free as they're cheap.

I've avoided some of the hard bottles like Camelback makes, but they should also be taste-free.

I've started using a Contigo coffee stainless vacuum cup. Most of them fit perfectly into bike water bottle cages (avoid painted or clear-coated containers ). But, they're made for sipping not guzzling. Although, I may have found one that can be guzzled Anyway, the Contigo mugs are the easiest to use and most spill-proof you can find.

Fortunately most of the new bike water bottles have much less taste/smell than those made 30 or 40 years ago (which were bad even when new).

PaulRivers

Let's break down all these things that could "leak" into your water:
- Plastic water bottle - water contaminated with plastic
- Metal water bottle - water contaminated with metal
- Copper water pipes to you house - water contaminated with copper
- Plastic water pipes to your house - water contaminated with plastic
- Buy water in plastic bottles - water contaminated with plastic
- Water treatment plant - who knows exactly what they put in the water or fail to treat in the water
- Water that's not rainwater in general - could be contaminated with any number of things

Thing is the water you're drinking sits in some sort of container (pipes, water tower, etc) before it comes out of your tap. I don't personally think that changing from a plastic water bottle to a metal water bottle is going to make much of a difference, and every single way we have to hold water in a container has someone saying it's bad for you.

Except glass maybe? Lol, it would be pretty funny to see someone trying to use a glass water bottle on their bike.

Oneder

The problem is they can stick whatever they want into plastic so long as it's not proven unsafe. So one thing gets banned and they just move on to the next almost identical compound. What a joke.

So I would definitely not count on any kind of plastic being safe, ever. None of it.

That said I can't live without my camelback when it comes to hiking. Otherwise I try to avoid plastic but it is so ubiquitous that it's difficult.

Glass bottles can be very strong btw they are just expensive.

And you don't have water in containers for god's sake, except if you live in some huge big city apartment building and even then it should be metal and therefore of no concern.

Milton Keynes

I bet many of the people saying using plastic water bottles are bad for you are likely the same ones who are now drinking untreated stream or lake water and saying it's not bad for you.

winston63 

Boy that brings back some memories. I don't think I ever partook of the salt tablets, but I remember them. And I remember being told to not swallow much water when you were exercising - just swirl some around your mouth and swallow a little bit! In hindsight it's clear that some of the things we believed were pretty ridiculous (and potentially dangerous).