Plastic BPA drinking glasses for grown ups...

[tangentgirl]

As a scientist who works with BPA.... Oh never mind, you don't want to hear the truth. Go ahead, find a cup that doesn't have all the benefits of BPA and is much more expensive, you'll feel better because of media hype BS.

This all sound like a business opportunity to me. That is, if you don't mind making some cash off of people's fears. Hmm.

[MommyBird]

Nothing scientific about this suggestion.

We have polycarbonate glasses from Williams-Sanoma that have been through the dishwasher for at least three years. None have cracked like our previous clear plastic purchases. They are a bit cloudy but not too bad. I do not baby them.
We have Target brand polycarbonate glasses in our RV. They are hand washed, much newer, and used less frequently so they are crystal clear.

The WS glasses were expensive compared to the Target. I can't say if the Target will hold up under the dishwasher like the WS. Anyone out there have Target polycarbonates that have experienced dishwasher abuse?

The cracking in the dishwasher was the major drawback with the non-polycarbonate versions we had previously used.

[MartianDestiny]

Nothing scientific about this suggestion.

We have polycarbonate glasses from Williams-Sanoma that have been through the dishwasher for at least three years. None have cracked like our previous clear plastic purchases. They are a bit cloudy but not too bad. I do not baby them.
We have Target brand polycarbonate glasses in our RV. They are hand washed, much newer, and used less frequently so they are crystal clear.

The WS glasses were expensive compared to the Target. I can't say if the Target will hold up under the dishwasher like the WS. Anyone out there have Target polycarbonates that have experienced dishwasher abuse?

The cracking in the dishwasher was the major drawback with the non-polycarbonate versions we had previously used.

The preservedproducts I mentioned have been through the dishwasher twice with no ill effects, but we simply don't use them that much.

They aren't Target brand. Apparently (after a bit more research) I can get them at Crate and Barrel (clearly not a cheap store) or any of a number of natural foods stores (including Whole Foods and Sprouts).

Not sure how they'd hold up long term, but on the other hand they are cheap and easily recycled, so you could toss them if they started getting icky after a year or so.

[SadieKate]

TsPoet, I would like to know if the various studies were based on stored liquid or liquid that is just temporarily in the container. Obviously a gin & tonic taken out to the bocce ball court isn't going to sit in the glass for long. Similarly, wine doesn't last long in my high lead count crystal wine glasses, but we no longer use our crystal decanters.

The comment about BPA in canned food is significant. Sometimes the 5 second rule is valid.

[maillotpois]

Obviously a gin & tonic taken out to the bocce ball court isn't going to sit in the glass for long.

Not if you are the one making them and I'm the one drinking them.....

[SadieKate]

Let me amendment my statement:

Obviously a gin & tonic taken out to the bocce ball court isn't going to sit in the glass at all if maillotpois is around.

[tulip]

If it concerns you, why not just use glass? Wrapping them in cloth napkins protects them in transit if you are going on a picnic. And if it's for adults, like the original post indicated, there shouldn't be much danger of breaking them. Especially if it's just for at-home patio use, glass is the way to go. Drinks taste better in glass.

I keep a ball jar of water in my car. No plastic taste, reusable, recyclable, the perfect material.

[SadieKate]

Is that "you" referring to me or the OP?

I'm mostly an inquiring-mind-wanting-to-know about the duration of storage in the studies.

[tulip]

Is that "you" referring to me or the OP?

I'm mostly an inquiring-mind-wanting-to-know about the duration of storage in the studies.

I was referring to everyone who has concerns about plastics. The collective "you."

I suppose I could have used "one," but that seems so formal and reminds me too much of my 7th grade English teacher.

[channlluv]

If it concerns you, why not just use glass? ...I keep a ball jar of water in my car. No plastic taste, reusable, recyclable, the perfect material.

As a daughter of the South, I am truly disappointed in myself in that I did not think of this myself. Do you re-use a popped lid or do you use a fresh one?

And how easy to pop in a couple of tea bags and have sun tea waiting for you when you get off work. Brilliant.

Roxy

[bmccasland]

What no takers for *Free* Mardi Gras cups? They are breeding...


(which is due to the magical properties of Mardi Gras, nothing chemical what-so-ever)

[SadieKate]

And how easy to pop in a couple of tea bags and have sun tea waiting for you when you get off work. Brilliant.

Roxy

Well, at least your bacteria will be BPA-free.
http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/suntea.asp

[TsPoet]

TsPoet, I would like to know if the various studies were based on stored liquid or liquid that is just temporarily in the container. Obviously a gin & tonic taken out to the bocce ball court isn't going to sit in the glass for long. Similarly, wine doesn't last long in my high lead count crystal wine glasses, but we no longer use our crystal decanters.

The comment about BPA in canned food is significant. Sometimes the 5 second rule is valid.

Sorry, I've been at the annual Society of Toxicology meeting. I'm afraid the container-leaching details are beyond me. I have a colleague doing a study right now investigating the amount of BPA that can be measured in people's blood after consuming meals of food from containers with BPA (applesauce and spam are on the menu, as well as numerous other similar goods). If I remember, I'll post in about a year when he publishes his results.

[Cataboo]

Lol.

The other day I was in Costco and I saw two different sets of plastic glasses that were marked BPA free and I thought... oh, I should post about them in that TE thread and then I didn't, because this thread kept coming up with 2-3 pages of comments on it and I thought, surely someone has already told her that you can go to costco and get these sets of bpa free glasses for $10-20 or something.

But apparently I was completely off my mark! Now that I've read this thread.

As for plastics... I'm gonna spare telling everyone what my phd is in and the rest of that. I avoid them when convenient. I took a graduate level course in dna mutagenesis, blah blah blah from a really highly respected professor who told us all about how everything we were using was screamingly mutagenic. Including my shampoo and conditioner. I enjoy clean unknotted hair. That is all I have to say about that. Caffeine & alcohol are synergistically very mutagenic. I will still drink bailey's irish creme in my coffee occasionally - although I have a friend that does it every morning. Almost any plastic in monomeric form (when it breaks down) is mutagenic. Yes, most of these studies are done by either the Ames test or massive amounts being injected into rats and mice.

But you only have to look at studies of what they find in the breast milk of eskimos or the fat of polar bears and seals and whales to realize that all of these toxins accumulate in our bodies over time.

So - I haven't gotten rid of any of my plastic bottles, 'cause they're convenient. I do have a few new sigg bottles, but like I'm putting a metal bottle on a bike for a ride. And I use hydration bladders biking, kayaking and hiking. They might be bpa free, but I haven't really paid attention.

I do microwave & store food in glass containers and use those instead of plastic. I switched all my cookware to cast iron so as to not deal with the anti-stick stuff leaching.

It was somewhat funny, after new year's a friend & I drove down to Florida for a kayaking vacation and I had called her before hand and said... "You cannot bring glass containers of water when we're kayak camping. There's no room in the kayak. You will drink out of plastic... " Because anytime we go hiking or biking, she wants to bring along glass mason jars to hold her water. And I sorta do the.. right, if you want to carry those, go right ahead.

So I go to pick her up, and she loads 4 big apple juice glass jugs full of water into my car... And I do the... Erm... YOu realize there is water in florida... She says yep, but I have good water, they don't have good clean water like I do. I do the... "we are not putting big glass jars of water into the kayaks and going camping in the everglades with them... Big glass jars are not going to pack well in the kayak and it's going to imbalance them" And she says, right, this is just for when we're near the car.

So she did consent to drinking water out of plastic containers while kayak touring, but just seemed to try to minimize it as much as possible. She wouldn't eat any camp food I had brought that had B vitamins added to them or any high fructose corn syrup, so we ended up packing separate food bags for the trip. Apparently synthetic B vitamins are bad, so cliff bars can't be consumed. There were various other bad things that couldn't be consumed or pass her lips. It made things a bit complicated, and packing 2 separate sets of food takes up space and weight - which while not a huge big deal in a kayak it does add to the effort.