The article about plastic water bottles ("Hold the refill...," Features, Sept. 12) confuses several different factors and winds up giving readers the wrong advice. The most important mistake is the final recommendation. The wildly popular transparent and often tinted Nalgene bottles are made out of polycarbonate, a plastic material that itself is made from bisphenol A. This is the compound studied by Tufts' Ana Soto, which has been implicated in many health effects by over 100 scientific studies, including superb research by Dr. Soto on breast cancer. The article should have recommended against using these bottles, instead of endorsing them because they are rigid. Bottom line? Avoid bottles labeled #7. Send your Nalgene bottles back to the manufacturer.
J.P. Myers
Charlottesville, VA
