Nalgene and BPA

So I see people walking around all the time with those Nalgene bottles (especially when I lived in SF and Portland). The habit always seemed a little strange to me, but now that it's over a hundred degrees every day here in Vegas, I've started to reconsider.

I remembered that I had one of those bottles somewhere and ran across it tonight. I wondered what it was made of, checked the recycling number on the bottom, and saw that it was a class 7. That's the "other" category of plastics that may contain BPA, a potentially carcinogenic toxin. BPA can leach out of these plastics, especially when exposed to hot liquids (e.g. warm milk in baby bottles).

I checked the Nalgene website, and sure enough, they are discontinuing their polycarbonate bottles due to consumer demand.