Google-ing the business about Nalgene bottle risks, I found numerous articles. What I consider the most informative (from a layman’s perspective) can be seen at these links:
Article 1.
Article 2.
Synopsis:
a) Warnings about Nalgene bottle risks stem from 2003 publication of a study by Dr. Patricia Hunt, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Hunt has spent years researching “developmental abnormalities leading to miscarriage and birth defects in mice.”
b) In 1998 Hunt observed that mice in her laboratory suffered a rapid, evidently spontaneous increase in abnormal gain or loss of certain chromsomes. This abnormality is associated with miscarriage and birth defects both in mice and in humans.
c) Hunt traced this to a lab worker who was using a harsh detergent in cleaning polycarbonate laboratory containers associated with the mice. The plastic leached a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) which has been implicated in chromosonal changes such as those that occurred in Hunt’s lab mice.
d) A University of Missouri study publicized in 2003 said that used or discolored polycarbonate bottles produce high amounts of BPA at normal room temperature. It also said new bottles produce detectable levels of BPA at that temperature.
e) Warnings which result from these studies apply to Nalgene’s polycarbonate or “Lexan” bottles -- the hard ones that come in nice colors.
f) The warning doesn’t apply to Nalgene’s high density polyethylene (HDPE) bottles. These are the milky-colored, semi-flexible bottles.
FWIW.
G.