Plastic Bottles: Balance Safety and Convenience Headlines about
health hazards of plastic bottles may spark concern about
dangers to yourself or your family. How much should you worry?
The short answer: not much if you drink bottled water or send it
to school with the kids. If you have children small enough to
use baby bottles or sippy cups, however, you need to make sure
that they're drinking from safe containers. The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration warned in January that the chemical
bisphenol A, known as BPA, potentially could cause harm to "the
brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and
young children." This was a reversal for the FDA, which
previously had supported the chemical industry argument that BPA
was no concern. The Canadian government earlier banned all BPA
use in baby bottles. When it comes to bottles for water and
other drinks, BPA occurs chiefly in inflexible hard plastic
containers that may have a recycling No. 7 on the bottom. (For a
description of recycling numbers and