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Tap water that has been left to sit out slowly begins to acquire an off taste. Many assume that this is because of micro-organisms. Treated water's added chlorine will take care of small communities of these little guys, but at room temperature they begin to multiply rapidly and can really get the party started. Even with clean water and a clean glass; one sip introduces a host of germs to the mix, in addition to whatever the water may have picked up by ambient dust.
But that's not what makes old water taste stale. For that we can thank carbon dioxide. After about 12 hours tap water starts to go flat as carbon dioxide in the air starts to mix with the water in the glass, lowering its pH and giving it an off taste. But it's most-likely safe to drink.
...
As for plastic water bottles that have been left out in the sun or the car, step away from the bottle, warns Dr. Kellogg Schwab, director of the Johns Hopkins University Water Institute. "A chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA, along with other things used to manufacture plastic can leach into your water if the bottle heats up or sits in the sun," he explains. BPA, as you likely know, is a hormone disruptor has tentatively been linked to everything from heart disease to cancer. Schwab also says that plastic used for bottled water isn't meant to be washed or refilled, so use only one time and recycle. Or way better, don't buy them at all; use a refillable water bottle instead.
I like to let mine sit out until it acquires malarial mosquito larvae.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @12:14AM
I have so-called BPA-free sturdy plastic water bottle. It is drained and refilled at least daily. Even if BPA-free, I figure whatever substitute used might also leach out. Oh well.
Keep the bottle out of sunlight - helps reduce the plastic breaking down and reduce whatever that leaches out. In the end, you might be better off with a stainless steel bottle. Meh. Not really worth all the worry - other things in life will get you before your water bottle.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 24 2015, @12:27AM
Glass is the only good thing to drink out of. Don't drop it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Friday July 24 2015, @12:30AM
Stainless is good, too. Camelback makes a double-walled bottle with a straw in the lid that keeps water cool overnight.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 2) by jcross on Friday July 24 2015, @12:45AM
But it always seems to me like stainless has a taste. Subtle but definitely metallic.
(Score: 2) by TrumpetPower! on Friday July 24 2015, @12:54AM
Only if your mouth comes into contact with it. The Camelback thermos I've got has one of their bite-to-drink straws, and the silicone it's made of has no taste I can discern.
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 5, Informative) by jcross on Friday July 24 2015, @12:54AM
The part about it being unsafe reusing plastic water bottles sounded like bullshit to me, and it looks like it might be bullshit:
http://www.plasticsinfo.org/Functional-Nav/FAQs/Beverage-Bottles [plasticsinfo.org]
The guy it probably legit, but that statement makes him sound like a shill for the bottled water industry.
(Score: 3, Informative) by anubi on Friday July 24 2015, @03:58AM
I believe your link has it right. PET is one tough plastic. The one to stay away from is that milky white soft plastic milk cartons and some waters come in. If you have had experience with the plastic aging and cracking, you know it has got to be going through some chemical degradation.
PET is so tough and resilient, they even make bottles for alcohol and acidic foods with it. I guess its well known that often liquor bottles are stored for decades before their contents are consumed. I actually collect used 1.75 liter PET liquor bottles for use as emergency water storage and storage for used motor oil. Being my water storage is compartmentalized into 1.75 liter bottles, rupture of some of the bottles during some disaster ( earthquake ) won't render the rest useless. A big 55 gallon drum of water, ruptured, is apt to be rendered useless if I did not catch in time.
If I can get enough identical liquor bottles, I can often also get the box they came in at the local market. Then I can put the box in some out of the way place in the back of the garden shed. Even if the shed comes down, most of the contents of the box is apt to survive.
Just in case you wonder what I use old motor oil for, it makes excellent chainsaw and hedge clipper blade lubricant, and also works great as a paint to keep bugs out of wood things such as my wood fence. I paint my wood fence with that stuff and the bugs won't touch it. Got the idea from grandpa. He painted the barn with it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @01:29PM
He painted the barn with it.
I bet the smell was something to behold!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @01:53PM
And so was the roaring fire!
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday July 25 2015, @08:21AM
Yes... you definitely do not want to paint the insides of structures with this!
The barn was not very airtight at all. Mostly a huge patio with tin roof. It was hardly airtight.
It had what was known as a "raised center roof" like this one [sccommunitychest.com] to aid in ventilation.
He had corn and hay storage in the top part, and had it fixed so he could either open big vents to cool on a hot day, or to try to hold in the heat on cold days, as well as a door on the top next to a cable hoist, so he could bring stuff up to the door on a platform he could run up and down on by a rope and tackle. He had a pulley in just the right place on a beam extending from the roof.
Kinda surprising what a clever design about leaving a slot like that will do to keep the inside cool on a hot summer day.
But then, this was the way I saw it done 50 years ago... when one made do with what he had. My guess is that the wood he used was pine, right out of the sawmill, and dead pine attracts termites big time. Both ways involved risk. Fire. Termites.
I do not remember if gramps put farm pesticide in the oil or not.
I just remember him talking about it... that barn was erected before I was even born.
And it was still there.
Your parent mentioned the smell. Very true. In a populated area, I would only paint something like a mailbox post or fence post with it. A coat of fresh used motor oil definitely has a foul smell. I was very concerned after I painted my fence that I would get in trouble for doing it, but thankfully the smell subsided after a week. Hopefully the fence will be there indefinitely now - as none of the buggies seem interested in it anymore.
Even those big black wood bees haven't touched it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @08:32AM
BPA free only means it's made of biphenol B for which the safety norms still don't exist. Use glass. Plastic doesn't belong to food chain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @12:52PM
And glass does?
Anyhow I thought we were done being afraid of BPA after gluten became the new boogeyman.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday July 24 2015, @01:28PM
I can eat glass, it doesn't hurt me. [archive.org]
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2015, @08:43AM
As far as I understand it, BPA was replaced by BPS in those "safe" water botles, and BPS (from what I've read, I'm no chemist) is even worse than BPA for leaching into water and it has basically the same impact as BPA.
So we traded the frying pan for the fire - all in the name of marketing!
(Score: 3, Informative) by mr_mischief on Friday July 24 2015, @08:31PM
Most of the containers labeled "BPA Free" have had Bisphenol A replaced with Bisphenol S, Bisphenol B, or another bisphenol. BPA is dangerous at high enough levels. Here's the rub, though. There's no evidence other bisphenols are any less active as estrogenic compounds than BPA is. The whole bisphenol class of molecules is likely harmful and some may be worse than BPA. Even if it's replaced with something else, that something else probably hasn't been studied well.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-free-plastic-containers-may-be-just-as-hazardous/ [scientificamerican.com]
http://www.ehjournal.net/content/14/1/46 [ehjournal.net]
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/5/1475.abstract [pnas.org]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/01/13/how-to-avoid-products-with-toxic-bisphenol-s/ [washingtonpost.com]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/bpa-alternative-disrupts-normal-brain-cell-growth-is-tied-to-hyperactivity-study-says/2015/01/12/a9ecc37e-9a7e-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
http://gizmodo.com/study-shows-bpa-free-chemical-could-be-just-as-bad-for-1679220401 [gizmodo.com]
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/bpa-alternative-alters-hormones [environmentalhealthnews.org]
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/big-picture-solutions/make-our-products-safe/cans-not-cancer/faq.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/ [breastcancerfund.org]
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/06/20/bpa-free-plastic-still-toxic.aspx [mercola.com]
A polycarbonate water bottle kept out of the sun might be acceptable. Those plastic disposables are probably only good for your emergency evacuation kit. Use the stainless (non-coated, ceramic coated, or glass coated) bottle, or get a wineskin, or ceramic mug, or glass bottle, or something else that's not plastic and definitely not soft plastic to be safe.