Sounds like a topic for a high school science fair project. I would
guess it depends upon the age of the bottle, the bottle material, the
pH and temperature of the water, whether you left the bottle in the
sun or not, and many other variables.
The Nalgene web site gives this as a solution to removing the
"plastic" smell (and other smells) from any Nalgene bottles:
* Roll a piece of charcoal briquette up in newspaper, put it in
the NALGENE® bottle or container and screw the cap on.
* Leave charcoal briquette and newspaper in bottle or container
for a few days.
* Wash in dishwasher (away from the heating element), or with
warm soapy water.
That implies to me that the charcoal is absorbing volatile organic
materials from either the bottle or the stinky anchovies you forgot
to clean out of it.
From the Nalgene FAQ section:
The white bottles give off a slight "plastic" odor. What is it?
NALGENE bottles and containers are made of pure plastic with no
fillers or extenders added, so the "plastic" smell is simply the
natural odor of the material. It is not harmful.
Hmmm. Since my old Nalgene HDPE bottles no longer smell as strongly
as the new ones, what does that mean? How should plastic smell,
really? I wouldn't expect it to smell like anything. If I'm smelling
something, it's not a long-chain polymer (plastic), it's some
unpolymerized, volatile starting material, of unknown toxicity. After
a few years the plastic bottle "outgasses" and no longer smells like
it did when new (extreme example: think about a new vs. old vinyl
shower curtain).
Diana
On Apr 4, 2007, at 12:53 PM, Sheryl Rieck wrote:
Does it leach out over an extended period of time? Or, does it
immediately
start the process. For example, if I put water in for 4 hours and
then
empty it, has the 'nert' stuff leached in that amount of time? Or,
does it
take longer?
Sheryl - Not a scientist
-----Original Message-----
From: Gill Ediger [mailto:gi...@worldnet.att.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 12:44 PM
To: Texascavers@texascavers.com
Subject: [Texascavers] Nalgene bottles
Lowell Eck told me way back in the '80s that Nalgene bottles (the
thick,
durable ones) were "nert"--meaning that they were not "inert". They
are not
chemically stable, and plasticizers and such will come out of them and
contaminate whatever is stored in them. At some point, I guess, if the
contents are changed often enough, all the bad juju ought to get
leached
out and the bottles stabilize, but how long that'll take and which
chemicals (contents) are more likely to disolve/absorb them is open to
discussion.
I used to carry "not water" in mine on river trips, but stopped
doing both
a long time ago.
--Ediger
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Diana R. Tomchick
Associate Professor
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Biochemistry
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.
Rm. ND10.214B
Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A.
Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu
214-645-6383 (phone)
214-645-6353 (fax)
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