• Question: Can reusing plastic bottles alter fertility?

    Asked by bubulis to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Aggelos Zacharopoulos

      Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      @bubulis,
      plastic has been blamed for a lot of things but I am not sure loss or lack of feritility is one of them. You will need a lot of research to be able to show a link between fertlity issues and plastic bottles.

    • Photo: Shane Bergin

      Shane Bergin answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      There is no evidence to support this claim. As scientists we have a very strict method to check whether our results are true or not. The media can write a story based on opinion and conjecture. Scienctists write on facts that have been checked by other experts in the field. The media love a good story that will shock people. Scientists prefer to have things correct

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      I seriously doubt it. I’ve given this some thought and can think of no reason that plastic bottles would affect our fertility. I’d say not to reuse them for too long in case sugar residues build up in it – even after washing – over time and start breeding bacteria. There’s a very small chance this would give you a cold – a VERY small chance. But it shouldn’t affect your fertility, don’t worry (or sorry, depending on your feelings on having kids).

      The media reports a lot of science that is either misleading or wrong. This is one of the reasons that science communication by scientists is so important.

    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      I think you might be referring to this story about heating plastic baby bottles (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/science/fda-bans-bpa-from-baby-bottles-and-sippy-cups.html). The idea is that lots of baby bottles used to contain a compound called BPA. When heated again and again, the worry is that this BPA compound might get into the baby milk in the bottle. BPA can behave in similar ways to the female oestrogen hormone and so might affect fertility of both males and females. The Food and Drug Administration in the USA who make sure all medicines and things for babies are safe decided the risks were believable enough to ban the use of BPA in plastic baby bottles. So, there is some truth in this story after all.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      In some kinds of plastic, there are dangerous chemicals, like the BPA that Andrew mentions.

      But nowadays, you can buy water bottles that you can reuse LOTS of times that are BPA-free. These are also better for the environment than the kind you’d only use once or twice.

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