Is Your Plastic Bottle Safe?
Posted on Nov 10 in Healthby ApplePrint
With the concept of keeping our environment green and clean, we start to apply the practice of recycle and reuse in our daily life. I believe that most of us will reuse the mineral water bottle. It’s cheap and convenient for us to find a storage for water.
Have you ever wonder what those numbers in triangle beneath those bottles mean? I used to think it’s a sign for people to categorize what sort of plastic it is before recycling. It’s not wrong, but I never think that such code can also tell us how safe is our plastic bottles.
These codes are known as resin identification code.
These codes are able to help us identify if our plastic bottles are safe to use or not. According to Wikipedia, plastics #3, #6, and #7 have been associated with negative health effects. [Source: Wikipedia]
And according to a Chinese article, it stated that plastics #1, #3, #6, #7 is not safe. [Source grabbed from Jay-han]
For details on why are those bottle unsafe, you can refer to the sources above. And for your information, most of the mineral water bottles are using plastic #1, which is not good for our health. Maybe it’s time for us to use proper bottles to bring water to school or work. Are you ready to discard all your unsafe bottles now?
[hat tip: Jay-han]
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I’m ‘green’ people… Try to reuse all the thingthat are posible to be reuse….
Those logo’s appears nowhere on any of my plastic bottle’s. nandakore?
My Plastic Bottles said no 1 … is that bad ? Thanks for the info ! its very useful ,
Nice blog BTW !
I heard about the triangle thing too. Just not that aware of it. Thank for reminding me about this important stuff.
Happy saturday!
@rambochai,
‘Green’ is good, but please me careful on what source you are reusing, make sure not affecting your health =)
@Orange,
yea, I realized that too. Some mineral plastic bottles don’t even bother to label the codes. =.= (more dangerous)
@GreY,
In fact most mineral water bottle is number 1, which is not really good for our health. Thanks for dropping by ^^
@curryegg,
You’re welcome. And thanks for coming here while I was away.
Was looking for the index and Google brought me here. =)
Well, the gradings are imprinted at the bottom of the container. In layman’s term, the higher the index number, the more complex the polymer structure is. In general, lower index number means lower resistance to heat and chemical reaction. The polymer chain could be broken by kinetic energy due to heat. This means that plastics will melt at a micro scale level and mix with your food or water if you use those kind of plastics to store them.
A rule of thumb, never store hot water using your mineral bottles. =) Oh ya, just bring your own metal containers next time if you wish to dabao.
The comment failed to load when I try to edit my post. Anyway, just want you to know that your blog looks neat and informative. Merry Christmas! =)
@ColourfulWorld,
Thanks for the visit. I’m glad you find my blog informative. Merry Christmas to you too.
Thanks for the explanation on the plastic bottles. It’s a wise idea to bring our own metal container to make a take away order.
There’s a bug for the comment editing plugin. Eventhough it stated as “Fail to edit” or something, in fact it’s edited. ^^
Well, just trying to contribute some facts. I’ve been commenting about the same issue at a charity and conservation blog – thegivinghands.org. I’ll come back often for more fresh updates. =) Take care!
Thanks ColourfulWorld. Take care too.
Tupperware products safe? Can someone helps?
@Jane,
You can check out this article for extra reading. Hope it helps.
I would like to comment that you are saying resin identification code can tell people which type of resin is unsafe for used. I can tell you that plastic is safe to use. Up to date, there is no issue about people death because of using ‘unsafe plastic’. The unsafe concern is just the monomer of the plastic itself like PC. The monomer of PC is Bisphenol A which is poison. But after the polymerization process the monomer became polymer where this polymer is non-poison. So, the PC bottle is safe to use. Are you heard any one death or sick (cancel) cause by using plastic? No! For PVC bottle also safe to use. The PVC bottle itself become poison if you burn PVC bottle. Why? Because its generate Chlorine gases which is harmful.
never recycle mineral water bottle. use proper bottle. but then again, these so called proper water bottles dont have a number.
zewt´s last blog post..The Chronicles of Hole and Pole
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_6_1x_Reusing_Plastic_Water_Bottles.asp?sitearea=MED&viewmode=print&
That’s the American Cancer Association.
This fear has all been caused by an email hoax a few years ago. Plastic bottles are safe as long as you keep them clean (like any other container).
This issue is argumentative. Some agree that reuse of plastic bottle threaten health, while others refuse to adopt to this concept. Well, we only live once. It’s better to believe than dying.
1st of all im a marine bioogist AND a designer at the same time… so u should hav the rough idea where i stand ^^
there are a lot of myth n fumble knowledge lead to confusion over this plastic thingy n recycle… b4 u go further in u should read urself wat was it all about, i mean the numbering n stuff…
bout recycle: there is more that 1 way 2 kill a bird… if ur afraid 2 use this so call “POISON PLASTIC” (which is not)… then dont use it 4 ur drink… let me giv u a hint, use 4 other stuffs other then beverage n food… or does recycling center ring a bell??? ^^
bout no numbering: this number come from American Plastics Council so not every nation use this code… so most likely if ur bottle made in malaysia surely wil not print out this code but look carefully coz some nation juz state PETE, HDPE, v, LDPE, PP or PS n it giv the same meaning juz witout the numbering code. (google 4 more details)
bout higher is better???: plz lar dont b ignorance… plz cite ur info… haiya, dont juz bang lik that lar… u will mislead ppl… if u say no.7 is much better then no.1 then u might kill people man… coz no.7 is others n it doesnt fall in either 1 of the other code n it might be a dangerous combination of plastic resin…but again not all no.7 is harmful, as long as its BPA-free its good 2 go hahaha… (coz some people afraid of BPA)
last bout the “is it really safe”: up to u man… if u stil 50-50 then dont use lar… but as 4 me i kno the details n i kno when 2 use n dispose… so i would say its cancer-free in no.1′s bottle as some had emphasize… but i didnt say it is safe… coz they r hard 2 clean n can trap bacteria n not coz of the urban legend of cancer-causing chemicals leaching from water bottles left in hot cars… so if u think u have super duper antibody then use as many time as u wan… but if not then use it once or twice then get some penny by sending a few dozen of it 2 recycling center ^^
*my 1 n half cents*
i agree with u M@NN-K..
here is some info u should know bout plastic.. pls do some correction on this post.
All plastic that comes into contact with food and drink, eg, drink bottles, certainly in Western countries, has been thoroughly checked as safe.
Most drink bottles are made from PET (number 1 below). This is safe for repeated use. See the excellent link below which deals with many wild stories about plastic bottles.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_numbered_plastic_bottles_are_safe_to_use
The Resin ID number indicates which plastic has been used to manufacture the bottle.
* Plastic type number 1: will have the initials PET. This stands for polyethylene terephthalate. This is most common of the disposable waterbottles.
* Number 2: High density polyethylene (HDPE), example milk jugs
* Number 3: Poly vinyl chloride (PVC)
* Number 4: Low density polyethylene (LDPE)
* Number 5: Polypropolene (PP)
* Number 6: Polystyrene (PS)
* Number 7: any sort of plastic that doesn’t fit into the first six categories. One popular example are the hard (usually Nalgene) coloured bottles, made with bisphenol-A (BPA).
*** This final number consists of both safe and dangerous plastics. It is better overall to avoid plastics bearing this code as they may contain polycarbonate, which will leach bisphenol A (BPA) into liquids, which may cause cancer..
hope this will help.