Polycarbonate bottles raise questions

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Polycarbonate bottles raise questions

By BEN DOBBIN, AP Business WriterSun Dec 23, 2:57 PM ET

Catching his breath at a fitness club, Matt McHugh took a gulp of
water from his trusty, hard-plastic Nalgene bottle and pondered the
idea of switching to an alternative made of glass, stainless steel or
another kind of plastic.

Worries about a hormone-mimicking chemical used in the trendy sports
accessory led a major Canadian retailer to remove Nalgene and other
polycarbonate plastic containers from store shelves in early December.

"It's definitely a concern but I'd like to learn more before I make
any decisions about my water bottles," McHugh, 26, a business manager
for a reggae band, said with an easy laugh. "For now, I'll probably
keep using my Nalgene until it breaks. It's indestructible, I've heard!"

Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-op is waiting for Canadian
health regulators to finish a preliminary review in May before it
reconsiders restocking its 11 stores with the reusable, transparent
bottles made with bisphenol A, or BPA, a compound created by a Russian
chemist in 1891.

There is little dispute that the chemical can disrupt the hormonal
system, but scientists differ markedly on whether very low doses found
in food and beverage containers can be harmful. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration sides with the plastics industry that BPA-based products
do not pose a health risk.

However, an expert panel of researchers reported at a U.S.
government conference that the potential for BPA to affect human health
is a concern, and more research is needed. The panel cited evidence
that Americans have levels of BPA higher than those found to cause harm
in lab animals.

Patagonia Inc., another outdoor-gear retailer based in Ventura,
Calif., pulled polycarbonate water bottles from its 40 stores worldwide
in December 2005 and, a month later, organic foods chain Whole Foods
Markets stopped selling polycarbonate baby bottles and child drinking
cups.

Some environmental groups in the United States and Canada expect others will soon follow suit.

"Given there are comparably priced, greener alternatives, I'm quite
convinced that within a couple of years, we're going to see the end of
this chemical in consumer products," said Rick Smith, executive
director of Toronto-based Environmental Defense Canada.

The controversy turned an unwelcome spotlight on Nalge Nunc
International, a division of Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher
Scientific Inc. It employs about 900 people at a plant tucked behind a
shopping plaza in the Rochester suburb of Penfield.

"Rarely has a chemical been the subject of such intense scientific
testing and scrutiny, and still important agencies across the globe
agree that there is no danger posed to humans from polycarbonate
bottles," Tom Cummins, a Nalge Nunc research director, said in a
statement.

The company declined to allow executives to be interviewed. Its
consumer products arm, with estimated sales of $50 million to $65
million, accounts for a fraction of Thermo Fisher's $9.5 billion in
annual revenues.

UBS Investment Research analyst Derik De Bruin told investors Nalge
Nunc also makes translucent containers made of other, softer plastics
such as polyethylene. So even a wider retailer recall of polycarbonate
products "would likely have minimal impact on the company," he wrote.

Nalge Nunc was founded in 1949 by Rochester chemist Emanuel
Goldberg. The lab-equipment supplier evolved in the 1970s when rumors
about its scientists taking hardy lab vessels on weekend outings led to
a water-bottle consumer unit targeting Boy Scouts, hikers and campers.

In 2000, a new sports line of Nalgene-brand bottles offered in red,
blue and yellow hues quickly became the rage in high schools and on
college campuses.

Highly durable and lightweight, resistant to stains and odors, and
able to withstand extremes of hot and cold, screw-cap Nalgene bottles
are marketed as an environmentally responsible substitute for
disposable water bottles. This holiday season, they're being offered in
new colors such as amber, moss green and vibrant violet.

In this city of Lake Ontario's southern shore, judgments about a
long-admired local business were invariably leavened with sympathy.

"Nalgene is the hallmark water bottle for the backcountry," said
businessman and skiing enthusiast Rob Norris, 58, as he shopped for a
backpack at an Eastern Mountain Sports store.

"I don't have any reservations right now," he said. "To me,
it's one of these overreaching things where there's some microscopic
particles that could leach out of a piece of plastic. But who knows
what's in the water we're drinking?"

But Ellen Guisto, 31, a stay-at-home mother of two, said a
growing chorus of concern about the chemical makes her hesitate. "I'm
not an alarmist by nature but if I hear there's a chance that this may
cause cancer, I don't think I would use it," she said.

Prompted by a swell of complaints over more than three years,
Mountain Equipment — Canada's largest consumer cooperative with 2.7
million members — said it removed mostly polycarbonate water bottles
and food containers, but left water filters and other products
containing the chemical on store shelves. It also will continue to sell
Nalgene containers made of other plastics, spokesman Tim Southam said.

In response, the FDA reiterated that "BPA has been used in
consumer products for over 50 years. In that time, there has been no
evidence that BPA is harmful to humans, either as the result of dietary
intake or industrial worker exposures."

With more than 6 million pounds produced in the United States
each year, bisphenol A is found in dental sealants, the liners of food
cans, CDs and DVDs, eyeglasses and hundreds of household goods.

Citing multiple studies in the United States, Europe and Japan,
the chemicals industry maintains that polycarbonate bottles contain
little BPA and leach traces considered too low to harm humans.

But critics point to an influx of animal studies linking low
doses to a wide variety of ailments — from breast and prostate cancer,
obesity and hyperactivity, to miscarriages and other reproductive
failures.

An expert panel of 38 academic and government researchers who
attended a National Institutes of Health-sponsored conference said in a
study in August that "the potential for BPA to impact human health is a
concern, and more research is clearly needed."

Fred vom Saal, a professor of biology at the University of
Missouri and one of the study's chief authors said the panel reviewed
700 published articles on BPA, practically all published in the last 10
years. Yet U.S. health and environmental regulators "are pretending
they're still in the dark," he said.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The
information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written
authority of The Associated Press.

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