Avoiding Bodily Harm and Other Ramblings

I love my Civic.

Even though I drove 25 miles to the courthouse on Monday going 8 mph, my car still got 30 mpg. Not only am I saving some money now that gas is near $4 a gallon, but I am also quite pleased that my car is efficient in its use of resources.

Now, on to a question that has plagued me for some weeks now: Nalgene bottles.

I do not watch The Today Show, but several well-meaning friends have enlightened me to the fact that my Nalgene bottles may very well be causing me infertility, diabetes, obesity and/or breast cancer according to a Matt Lauer interview. I have pushed the questions to the back of my mind because I would rather be in denial sometimes than know the truth. However, tonight I finally decided to do the research.

Honestly, I use Nalgene bottles for multiple reasons. 1.) Before I got a camelback bag for water, the Nalgene bottle held a much larger supply of liquid than other bottles at my disposal, which comes in handy on long hikes. 2.) I know I need to be drinking lots of water everyday, so having a nice big bottle at the ready is the best way to ensure I keep drinking. 3.) Isn’t it so much better to reuse these bottles than to constantly go through all those other plastic bottles?

Oh, and 4.) I may be the only person in the world who doesn’t like bottled water, but there you have it. I prefer the tap water in most places, so I would rather drink what comes out of the faucet than what comes in the ready-made plastic bottles.

I won’t get all scientific on this blog, but suffice it to say that there is a camp of scientists who say a chemical (bisphenol A) used to make those Nalgene bottles (and other plastics with the numbers 3, 6, or 7 on them) leaches into the food or liquid in the container thus causing havoc on our human bodies. Another group of scientists declare that these findings are questionable at best. Apparently the levels of this chemical given to animals in the study is hundreds or thousands of times higher than any level of the chemical I would get by drinking water out of the Nalgene bottle.

That latter group of scientists works for the government.

And for what it’s worth, the scientist from the former group who was interviewed on The Today Show looks like he’s 18 years old. And he wore a stethoscope around his neck for the entire interview like he was trying too hard to prove his legitimacy.

Ugh. Who to believe? I hate to think I have materially damaged my body by using Nalgene bottles the past five years. I hate to just throw away five or six of those bottles that probably cost a total of $75.

I could have bought a new dress with that money!

If only I’d known the bottles were toxic.

Unless they’re not.

So maybe I will end up throwing them away anyway. According to stethoscope doctor on The Today Show, all plastics with numbers 3, 6, and 7 are out. And the others shouldn’t be reused.

Do they make steel water bottles? Are those safe?

I know glass is OK, but that would be anything but reusable in my case. I’m sure it would be miraculous if a glass bottle lasted more than 30 minutes with me…or really with anyone. Come on. Who could successfully carry a glass bottle around all day? Maybe I’ll do an experiment, just to see. That is, when I can get my hands on a glass bottle with a resealable lid.

To escape from all these questions and pressures of real life I’m now watching the fireworks at Epcot in Disney World live on ustream.tv. In case you care, they go off at 9 p.m. eastern time. This is the channel I am currently watching, but you can also check here for other live views.

Just so you know, I will probably mull over the question of water bottle usage for a good three weeks before taking any action. In the mean time, I will be utilizing drinking glasses at home and water fountains when I am out and about.

Oh, wait! I just had the genius idea of using those metal coffee mugs with lids to carry around water. Though, they’re small enough that water fountains will still be part of the routine. I will let you know how it goes.

Because I know you care deeply about this Nalgene bottle dilemma. :-)