A quick search provides a LOT of info . A lot of it isn't current. I am linking the Urban Legend about the bottles left in a hot car !

I use special reusable water bottles for my cycling and running. They get washed and bleached and air dry and the water/drink never stays long in the bottle at all...I drink it :)

I have never used bottled water except in an emergency and never buy small bottles ..that is just my personal choice.

Here is a link that might be useful: urban legend

Yes and I put microwave safe plastic items in the microwave. I've had cancer twice but I don't worry about what or how I eat and drink at least in terms of it causing cancer. I've noticed that other people I know seem to become a little paranoid about what or how they eat and drink after being diagnosed with cancer.

Life is precious and I prefer to enjoy it to the fullest rather than worrying about every little thing that might cause cancer but for which there is little or no quality evidence to indicate that is the case. You could drive yourself nuts doing that I think.

There's so much info floating around out there that might be based on one flawed study or worse yet based on nothing but somebody's opinion. It gets posted on the internet somewhere and then people think it's fact vs. junk science. I just do not listen to all that noise or take action on it.

trail, thanks for posting the link. I have never heard that urban legend before, just heard on GMA or Today Show some time back about plastic bottles emitting gases before we get to drink out of them.

I won't microwave anything in baggies anymore, not that I did it that much anyway. And, I use to buy the veg's that you steam in a bag, but not anymore. It's not that big of a deal to me to not use it, so I don't.

OT, but, I think the next thing we have to worry about, as far as putting plastic in the earth, are the air-soft guns kids have now. My son and all his friends have these guns that shoot out little plastic pellets and they are everywhere on our property. Gotta end up doing some damage, and they are too little and too many to pick up. They make earth-friendly pellets, but, you guessed it, they are so expensive!

I don't use plastic for water or for cooking at all. No microwaving, no marinating, etc. If you trust the plastics industry and if you trust that China has our health in mind when they fill their products with chemicals (they don't even have their own citizens'/workers health in mind) then I think you are being naive. How many products, how many kinds of plastics have been found to be harmful over the years, with different chemicals now banned?

If I buy bottled water, I only buy glass bottles. All my food storage and microwave containers are glass. I don't use plastic wrap on top in micro either...just put a glass plate over the container.

If you or your loved ones have had cancer don't you wonder what part our environment might be playing in the high incidence we are experiencing? It is not inconvenient, nor is it paranoid to eliminate a material that is poisoning the earth and might be harming humanity in ways known and unknown. It seems like common sense to me.

I don't use plastic either, and I don't buy one-time use water bottles, both because I want to avoid the chemicals and because I think they're wasteful. The plastic water bottles I have are reusable and BPA free.

Some of the doom and gloom about plastic may be junk science, but even so, it does me no harm to avoid using plastic if I can. I'm not missing out on anything by not using it, and I just may be doing myself and my family a favor.

Personally, I believe that chemicals in the products we use have something to do with the increase in cancer and other illnesses, so why not do what we can to avoid unnecessary exposure?

olychick - I do wonder about what environmental factors may cause cancer and other conditions that seem to be more prevalent. However whatever it is, I think it's pervasive in the air we breathe, our water supply, etc. and unlikely trying to avoid it is really going to be fruitful. I don't mean any disrespect to people who do want to try to do this but it's just not for me. Maybe it has something to do with the fact I wasn't supposed to survive to age 20 after my original cancer diagnosis. Here I am 34 years later - 24 years after a recurrence. After all that I just don't worry about stuff like drinking out of plastic bottles.

gibby, congratulations on your successful treatment. I totally understand the more fatalistic view after having survived what you have. I do think plastic bottles and other products are poisoning our water, air and it also is created from petroleum. I feel an obligation to try to impact the earth as little as possible, so that future generations might have a chance to survive here. Not using plastic is one choice we can make that might make a difference for everyone, and everything...from the manufacturing to the disposal.

"Life is precious and I prefer to enjoy it to the fullest rather than worrying about every little thing that might cause cancer but for which there is little or no quality evidence to indicate that is the case. You could drive yourself nuts doing that I think."

Exactly!

Personally, I don't like drinking out of a bottle or a can. My husband, on the other hand, keeps bottles of water and bottles of power aid on hand at work. We reuse the water bottles with our own water. I must admit, I have thought more about the effect on the environment that our health.

tina

Gibby & Oly, I think you both make valid & important points! I would do well to incorporate both of your outlooks into my own!

Gibby I SO admire your spirit & sense of perspective! It's easy to fritter too many moments away, fretting over things which we have no, or very limited, control over!

Oly, I always admire your efforts to improve the environment! It's clear from your posts that being eco-friendly is a big part of your lifestyle. We all need to think about how we can reduce our footprint & salvage what's left of our vital resources! Thanks for your inspiration.

I try to be mindful that "plastic is forever" (sorry diamonds, no contest, baby) & try not to contribute more to the landfills!

I am mostly good. I don't usually buy bottled water but when I am out of town, traveling, etc., I buy cold, bottled water. I don't drink soda and
or sweet drinks of any kind. That generally leaves water or Tejava tea. Not many people carry Tejava so I buy water.

We purchase BPA free bottles for water but honestly do not use them much. I often am generally on the fence about a lot of health related things that often seem to me as questionable "industry sponsored" studies. I wish there was more reputable evaluation and study of many of these issues. In the meantime we do the best we can.

On microwaving in plastic, I had thought about the possible risks and they do seem plausible. My problem with glass is how easily it breaks added to my clumsiness or that of my children. However, my microwave starting shooting sparks and we have decided not to replace it (at least for now)and part of that is me no longer having to worry about the plastic issue.

Tina - I agree - I think about plastic more from an environmental perspective than my own personal health. I will say that any disposable plastic bottles that touch my lips don't go into a landfill - unless my recycling goes there and I don't know it. I can't bring myself to throw something in the trash that can be recycled - including my compost.

I think we've been breathing soot since we discovered fire, but we haven't also been breathing and ingesting all the other chemical concoctions we have been for the last one hundred years, and in the last fifty years those concoctions have multiplied geometrically!

Our water, our soil, our air, our food, our bodies, are all loaded with chemicals, some combinations of which do not even exist in nature. I think it is very worrisome, especially for today's kids. At least when we were young, some of our food was still in its original form. Today's kids don't have that advantage.

I don' t buy water in plastic bottles unless it is an emergency. I recycle. I compost. I cook from "scratch" as much as possible. I try to buy in bulk, rather than individual packaging. I store my food in glass jars that I have repurposed after their contents are eaten instead of buying glass containers to serve the purpose. I use cloth napkins, rags instead of
paper towels, and vinegar, baking soda, and bleach to clean. My eight year old car still gets 35-37 mpg. I spend less money this way, and I make less waste.

I probably sound like a sanctimonious old fool, but I think our human
bodies, and our precious old earth, have not caught up to our innovations. It worries me.

I felt sanctimonious when I gave up ordinary bacon, I use nitrate free now, but I'm sure something I eat, drink or breathe is not a good thing.

Restaurant food, for instance. We don't go often to better restaurants but occasionally, maybe once a week or more, I get something from a fast food restaurant.
I don't think too much about all the dangers involved with a taco or chick-fil-a anymore than I do when I use plastic water bottles, which might be once a month.

I try not to worry about things but do what I can without major stress.
If I needed bottled water everyday, I would opt for glass or stainless containers. I don't eat organic meats as they are just too expensive (but I wish I could) but there are things I can do and I try to do those.
Some I succeed at, others I fail.

I'm another one who avoids plastics in the house. There are plenty of studies that have demonstrated that there are plasticizers and other chemicals in plastics that disrupt our endocrine systems. Plastic -- even plastics in other non-food related items -- are breaking down and producing dust that can enter your body through the air. There's plenty of science to back it up. I'm not crazed about it -- I just do my best to avoid it. If I have the choice between a product made of natural cotton or wool, I choose that. I have filtered taps at home so if I need drinking water I get it that way. I also use glass to microwave in. You don't even have to use plastic baggies -- there's a great brand of brown wax paper baggies called Natural Value brand. I use them for the kids' lunches. They don't cost more than zip locks. I don't feel like I make a big deal of any of this, as I go through my routines I just opt as much as possible for simpler, less-toxic products. As for plastic, I'm in the same camp with those who think that our bodies simply haven't caught up to the chemicals and materials the modern age has given us. Plus, out of something like 80,000 chemicals -- including those used in plastics, human safety studies have been done only something like a hundred. There's not much oversight at all, even though there is some attempt in legislation coming up to rewrite the toxic substances law from 1976. For this reason, I guess we all have to make decisions on our own about these things. My mother died young of cancer and I believe there were environmental reasons.

Even if it were found with 100% certainty that plastics did not cause health problems, I would continue to avoid them to the extent possible both because of their impact on the environment and because so many plastics are derived from petroleum. Given those issues, I do not understand why people continue to buy water in plastic bottles when they have alternatives - like, for example, the faucets in their kitchens. The issue of ocean "deserts" essentially made out of plastic should make people at least think critically about their behaviors:

http://www.ecology.com/2008/08/14/pacific-plastic-waste-dump/

And that is only one issue.

Regardless, though, I do think studies on the impact of plastics on human health should give one pause. Since it's often easy to avoid plastics in favor of alternatives, I prefer to err on the side of caution by doing that. I know it's not always possible of course.

There are so many things in the environment that can cause problems like pharmaceutical drugs in the water supply, hormones in food, seafood from China, and as I somewhat joke about "I grew up swimming in and eating fish from Lake Erie." My mother also smoked almost my entire life--she quit when she was 75, so I'd been exposed to second-hand smoke a LOT between that and being in smoky bars/club concerts. I worry more about that than plastic bottles.

I don't cook in anything plastic and try to store food in glass but I do use freezer bags for some foods.
Those steam vegetable bags are crazy bad but they must be popular.

I do do eat things sold in plastic, however, ketchup, cheese, bread, etc. and I do admit to eating the frequent lean cuisines which I know are terrible for you but I still have them a couple times a week.

Mainly I don't microwave in or with plastic anything.

By the way, the water you buy in bottles is no safer or cleaner than what's most usually coming out of the tap. Municipal water supplies are monitored and tested constantly. Bottled water -- not so much. In many cases, bottlers are just using tap water then reselling it at a jacked up price! So besides creating garbage that clogs land fills and ends up floating in the ocean (has anyone seen pix of all the plastic in the ocean?), besides using massive amounts of petroleum to manufacture the plastic and then transport it from point to point, besides ALL THAT it's a rip off and is no better (and sometimes much worse!) than what you get out of your own tap. Here's a link to a Reader's Digest article that explains.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reader's Digest Bottled Water Story

Think about this, your meds come in plastic containers and your injections come in them too. Blood work is done with plastic and plastic is used in stents and other medical items. Even our bandaids have plastic. I questioned my son who is a biologist in the medical field and he says there is no proof that plastic causes cancer when it is in a solid form. If its melted down and ingested then that's a different story. So the answer is, yes I use plastic and will continue to do so.

While I try to avoid plastic bottles, I'm not overly paranoid about it. There are so many things that are supposed to kill us being publicized lately, while life expectancy in the U.S. is rising every decade. Obesity and its resulting diabetes may change that, but for now (and for me) the stress of being afraid of every new thing that's supposed to do us in is worse than the minuscule chance that it actually will.

While I try to avoid plastic bottles, I'm not overly paranoid about it. There are so many things that are supposed to kill us being publicized lately, while life expectancy in the U.S. is rising every decade. Obesity and its resulting diabetes may change that, but for now (and for me) the stress of being afraid of every new thing that's supposed to do us in is worse than the minuscule chance that it actually will.

Ditto