# Are BPA-Free plastic water bottles safe? Or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 8, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363 "2010-12-08T01:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/1 "2010-12-08T01:31:14Z")
Every reuseable water bottle for sale advertises “BPA Free”. Yet they also sell glass water bottles who brag they have no plastic to give you CANCER! So what is the straight dope, can I get a cool funky BPA Free plastic bottle? Or will I be ingesting petroleum products unwittingly if so? ---
**Author:** ![goldmund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a4c791/32.png) [@goldmund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goldmund)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/2 "2010-12-08T05:12:50Z")
Snopes is [undecided on this](http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/plasticbottles.asp), it seems. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/3 "2010-12-08T06:08:47Z")
> [@sassyfras](#): > > Yet they also sell glass water bottles who brag they have no plastic to give you CANCER! Hey, guess what the sun gives you! Guess what all the natural radioactivity in the Earth itself causes! ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/4 "2010-12-08T06:56:02Z")
I think the cool kids are using stainless steel bottles these days. You have the option of single- or double-walled depending on whether you want some level of insulation or not. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/5 "2010-12-08T14:10:27Z")
I did some research on BPA a while ago, and it appears that the amount you get from plastic bottles is vanishingly small, but the jury is still out on safe exposure levels, I think it is. It’s not high on my list of worries, though - I’m more worried about the car exhaust I inhale every time I go for a walk. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/6 "2010-12-08T15:35:34Z")
Regarding BPA: according to the [NIH](http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/media/questions/sya-bpa.cfm), adults don’t really need to worry about it. As for ‘single-use’ water bottles, a number of studies have shown that, while minute amounts of various chemicals _can_ leach into water, the only remotely significant risk is that reused bottles like that are less likely to get washed and dried properly. If you want something to worry about, worry about the bacteria within, not the chemicals. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bpa-free-plastic-water-bottles-safe-or-not/563363/7 "2010-12-08T15:47:15Z")
I’ve never understood the logic behind not reusing plastic bottles, from a chemical leaching point of view. I mean, if you buy a bottle of water from the shop, that might have been on the shelf for, what, 18 months, two years? (They have a pretty long expiration date!). If anything is leaching into that water, it’s going to have reached its equilibrium concentration long ago. Refill that same bottle for personal use and the water will be in it for, what, two days tops? How is more _OMG CANCER!!!1111_ going to leach into the water in two days than 18 months?