A Small Victory!

Well, that was easy.

Last night my boyfriend informed me his office is ditching their water cooler (where will they gossip?) in favor of tap water. Turns out when he started examining the plastics he's surrounded by, he discovered the Crystal Geyser water jugs are made of Type 7 plastic.

A little bit of info on Type 7 plastic (from my trusty sources Wikipedia and the Series of Tubes they refer to as the "Internets"):

Type 7 is the dreaded "Other" plastic, often used for food containers and our recently dissed friend, Tupperware. It's really just a category for plastics that aren't #1-#6, and it cannot be recycled.* There are too many different variations of Type 7 plastic, so recycling centers can't separate them. Some Type 7s are made from bisphenal A monomer, or BPA. But, because they're the "Other" plastic, we can't know which ones.

So, get this: BPA is an endocrine disruptor (read: hormone mocker.) It's linked to early onset of puberty for females, bad moods, thyroid problems, breast cancer**, neurological issues including fetal and infant brain development, prostate development (bad!) and prostate cancer (worse!) and ... obesity.

Finally, a daily low dose of BPA in rats produced a permanent change to the genital tract.

So much for Tupperware parties.

Check your water coolers. The news is probably not good.



*Look for the upcoming post: What About Recycling?
** This one's important, and we'll see it recurring.