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Comment by te | Hacker News Reader

My kids drink out of plastic water bottles all day long, both at school and then at soccer practice in the evening. What is the safest material for water bottles? Is BPA-free good enough?

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Your kids will survive without carrying around bottles of water all the time. When I was a kid (before all you people started standing on my lawn constantly) we had water fountains at school and the coach brought coolers of tap water to the sports field. You know, one of these.

http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-1631/Breakroom-Supplie...

I'm not sure when the trend of people (not just children) being in the constant company of a bottle of water started. It's certainly not necessary for healthy people who are doing anything other than crossing open country on foot.

In America, it is good to be self-reliant and not good someone carries around a cooler of water for you. A bottle of water is a convenient healthy alternative to a box of sugar water. Those water fountains are great for refilling the bottle.

I think bottled water is more convenient than that thing.

For some reason fountains are getting scarce. I send mine with bottles.

Personally, I use glass, as much for the taste as for peace of mind about potential chemical leaching. Stainless steel is probably second best in terms of safety as long as you make sure that the inside is not lined with plastic or some other coating (it happens) and that it is from a reputable manufacturer and certified free heavy metals or other metals that are not good to ingest.

Here are the bottles I've been using for about a year and a half:

http://amazon.com/Aquasana-AQ-6005-18-Ounce-Bottles-6-Pack/d...

All glass with a BPA-free plastic top. They're great, but I have broken two of them, which is of course the major downside of glass bottles.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bpa-free-plastic-c...

Seems BPA got replaced with chemicals that just haven't been tested as much as BPA but have similar effects.

Glass is probably your best bet.

Agreed.

My kids may be too rough on them for glass, so I may tend towards stainless steel. However, this article shows a nice range of options:

http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/13/non-toxic-bpa-free-bottles/

Considering that phthalates are banned in toys that children put in the mouth in the EU it may be a good idea to think about water containers for kids too.

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/internal_market/singl...

I use stainless steel as a tougher alternative to glass. Though glass is probably the best solution to the problem. Check out kleen kanteen, http://www.kleankanteen.com/ they make high quality stainless canteens of various sizes, and are great for hiking and on the go.

If you're concerned about it, I suggest getting glass bottles. Bottles with rubber slip covers are available, decreasing the likelihood of breakage when dropped.

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