Boire de l'eau à la bouteille

People who frequently reuse their water bottles may be risking their health.

Canadian Press Sunday, January 26, 2003 TORONTO (CP)

While people may think they're doing a good deed for the environment when they reuse water bottles for anything from orange juice in a bagged lunch to a week's worth of water refills from the office water cooler, researchers say they could be risking their health.

Dangerous bacteria and potentially toxic plastic compounds have been found in the types of water bottles typically reused in classrooms and workplaces countrywide.

A study of water bottles at a Calgary elementary school found bacteria in kids' bottles that would prompt health officials to issue boil-water advisories, had the samples come from a tap.

Researchers discovered bacterial contamination in about a third of the samples collected from kids' water bottles at the school. Some samples even showed evidence of fecal coliforms.
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The bacteria likely came from the kids' hands and mouths over time as they repeatedly used the same bottles without washing them or allowing them to dry, Ryan said.

She conducted the study out of curiosity after she realized the bottles being used by her young son and his classmates throughout the day weren't being washed frequently.

"The bottles had for months not been washed out," she said. Ryan herself admits she doesn't always wash her own water bottle. Instead she lets the bottle she keeps at her desk air-dry overnight to kill off any bacteria.

While researchers in her study collected samples from only 76 bottles at one elementary school, which has not been identified, Ryan said the results would likely be the same anywhere else.
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And a study conducted in the United States suggests the kind of thorough washing that could kill bacteria might make the bottles unsafe in another way.

Frequent washing might accelerate the break-down of the plastic, potentially causing chemicals to leach into the water, the study found.
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"The fact is, a lot of these compounds have not really been studied in terms of their human health effects," said Margrit von Braun, a University of Idaho professor. Single-use soft-drink and water bottles are commonly made of a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which, while considered safe for its intended use, was found to break down over time.

Outre son aspect ludique, ce procédé permet de se rafraîchir en économisant la boisson et en en favorisant l'oxygénation, ce qui est favorable au développement des arômes.