I dont know how many of you have been following this, but there’s a new movement in town to get away from BPA-containing plastics. BPA (bisphenol-a) is an estrogen-look-alike, at least as far as your body’s biochemistry is concerned, and can leach from plastics.

Manufacturers like Nalgene have tried to spin the news in their favor for a long time, but Canada just recently declared BPA “toxic to human health.” It is also heavily regulated, if not outlawed, in Europe. Now, it’ll probably be a long time before the US takes any action on it, but BPA-free water bottles are starting to pop up all over the net. However, the effects of BPA are most damaging when you’re still developing, meaning for most of us the “damage is already done” so-to-speak, but I’d hazard a guess that going BPA-free when you can wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

The fact is, all of the old water bottles we use going camping could be harmful to our bodies. I’d like to think that perhaps we get all pissy at the end of the trip due to all the estrogen-like BPA in our systems. I went to a seminar last summer which featured the head-honcho BPA researcher in the United States, and he stated that we’re essentially moderating the masculinity of males in our society with all the BPA we ingest and absorb. In fact, modern sperm counts are something on the order of half of what they were before BPA plastics were mainstream, and in-the-wild animals are less masculine as well due to run-off containing BPA. It’s not a good situation, and in light of the lack of government to move on this issue, you can vote with your wallet.

I wouldn’t leave you all hanging without a way to solve the problem, so here are a few tips:

Switch from your old water bottles to ones specifically mentioning BPA or bisphenol-a free.

I like Camelbak’s line of BPA-water bottles. I’ll be buying a Tritan Better Bottle for hiking and a Podium Squirt Bottle for my bike. The Tritan has the additional added benefit of a “squeeze and squirt” mouthpiece, so we’ll see how this works in the backcountry.

If anyone wants to get in on my REI order to save on shipping, gimme a comment!