Are Nalgene Bottles Unsafe? Part 2 [Justin]
Part 2: The Bacteria On My Nalgene
This post follows up on my previous post on whether Nalgene bottles are unsafe.
This article alleges that bacteria from a reused water bottle can make you sick:
Many people believe that their bottles are free from dangerous bacteria because they’re the only ones using it.“If I have my individual one, I don’t see the point (of washing it),” says Lindsay Parsons, a hockey player. Parsons says his bottle is never washed.
“I never got anything from it (and) I don’t let anyone else use it,” says Dan Gladwin, Parson’s team mate.
Researchers say that’s the wrong way to go about it. Ryan says germs grow on the saliva that backwashes into the bottles and that can cause severe stomach infections. link
There are a few factors here:
- Harmful bacteria are everywhere, not just in sick people. They only cause problems when they enter the body in large enough numbers to cause an infection that your body can’t easily fight.
- It’s unsafe to grow everyday bacteria in a petri dish because there will be a huge concentration of them, which could easily make you sick (like eating someone’s snot). EDIT: Note that the petri dish in the photo is sealed with tape - and it will never be opened.
- You do get used to your own bacteria, and they aren’t harmful unless your Nalgene bottle is serving as a petri dish, allowing them to get out of control.
- In large numbers, bacteria smell. If your bottle is smelly, don’t drink from it until you wash it, genius.
Here is a scan of a petri dish (beef broth agar, cultured 3/3/05, scanned today that I touched to the rim of my Nalgene bottle:
32-day-nalgene-culture, uploaded by justinbaeder. Huge version
For comparison, here is a culture from my bracelet, which is also a constant companion.
As you can see, there’s all sorts of crap on my Nalgene bottle. Yet I hardly ever get sick, and if I do, I’m a teacher, so I’m certainly not going to blame my poor little Nalgene bottle when 150 germ vectors run in and out of my room every day. 
I have a Nalgane and avoid this by putting it in the dishwasher every few days…
As an alternative to washing your Nalgene bottle, you could periodically add a teaspoon of Chlorox bleach, fill it with water and let it stand for about an hour. Rinse several times to remove the bleach smell and your bottle should be sterile again.
no way,
I backpacked a Nalgene around Europe for many weeks and then left it in my (pathetically unused) backpack for a year or so upon returning. When I dug it out much later, I thought, “Cool, my bottle with my Europe stickers on it.” Upon cracking the lid, though, I was hit with a stench the likes of which I’m sure only the early Christians worshipping in the catacombs were privy to. There was no way I was going to drink out of this revered-but-stanky bottle ever again. Unless……bleach. I bleached it heavily for the next few months, thinking that would help. BUT, the funk NEVER left (and never diminished). It was like that car in Seinfeld that always reeked of body odor. No amount of cleaning it would help.
Soooooooooooo, I tossed the bottle (into the air, actually, where I shot it with a shotgun, which it was surprisingly resistant to) and never looked back. Now I reuse cheap plastic water bottles (Nivea and the like, though usually Sam’s Choice) and scrap ‘em after a couple of days. Nalgene’s look cool, but unless you’re roughing it in the genuine wilderness, little plastic bottles will see you through.
oh, I meant to say “Evian” instead of “Nivea”
I would definitely NOT recommend drinking out of an old bottle of Nivea
I would advise against bleach. A spoonful will sterilize a bathtub, and will take more than a few rinses to not leave a taste. Ordinary dish soap will do just fine.
We aren’t going for sterile bottles, just clean. The bacteria are all around us. They are our friends. No, they are our roomates, and they need to be kept in check, not eradicated. The eradication mindset is what has led to resistant strains, which no one wants to mess with.
They are more than our friends and roommates. The human body contains 10 times more bacterial cells than it does human cells. We are thin-walled bags of mostly bacteria.
The pic of the petri dish has big shock value, but you could get even more biodiversity just swabbing your mouth. But as you correctly note, none of these bacteria are in the least bit harmful where they are living, even inside your body. Most of them are actually doing stuff you really need them to do. Disease only occurs when i) normal bacteria end up where they don’t belong, like in your bloodstream or ii) special disease-causing strains of bacteria are introduced (like salmonella, certain strains of E. coli, legionella, etc). Almost none of these nasty bugs grow well in plain water, even when left in a plastic bottle for eons.
For the most part, evolution has done a pretty good job making sure you can eat or drink almost any food or water source around you (including nasty Nalgene bottles) and not die. That’s not to say you wouldn’t toss your lunch, but you won’t die. So relax.
Scientists consider - our resident two science teachers at Aletheia say that all this anti-bacterial soap stuff is not good for us because we need to gain a resistance to bacteria…taking too many anti-biotics can make it hard for a doctor to choose the right one if you get real sick ( you are resistant). ASK Andrea what they do in preschool with all the saliva drenched sippy cups to keep germs “in check”. I wash in hot water and soap everything at home, counters, etc…and air dry.Make sure things are dry and clean. I just had a friend come back from Mexico sick after drinking only bottled water and eating in screened places…what we mostly can get sick from she found is the dishware not sterilized with cleaning in hot enough water ( like our school has tohave a licence that the dishware is cleaned in hot enough conditions )…and , of course, there is the human factor…do all of the people preparing out food wear gloves like they should ? Helpful, and I don’t know why…I find that eating just a small amount of yogurt helps keep me from getting stomach things. I have a very sensitive system and it has helped so much and others say so too. Apparently the “live , active , yogurt cultures ” are healthy and strong bacteria that fight and erradicate the strongholds of the bad guys. Maybe this is some advice found is Leviticus ?
Hygene is critical, especially in this day and age. Humans are in contact with other humans in FAR greater rates than ever before in our historic or biological history. This matters in terms of mutation. This is the exact reason why the Bird Flu is so worrisome… not because of its present form, but because of its *molecular structure’s* potential for mutation into a different form that could be more easily taken up by humans.
Although immunity increases with diverse exposure, there’s no need to facilitate the process by inculcating our daily routines with sundry petri-dish-like objects. If this should be our goal (bad idea), then one might more effectively expose your system by merely licking the insides of people’s noses (bad idea).
Be clean. Avoid moist, warm objects for storage of anything to be consumed. And don’t facilitate new, mutated pathogens. All of this will be common sense for the surviving remnant, a generation or two down the road.
We live a new world, biohazard wise. Believe it.
Cool photos, Justin. It’s good to remember that some foreign bacteria will get into the bottle from the air and from your own skin via daily casual contact with others. That means that your bottle may begin to grow bacteria that is foreign to your system. Or bacteria like e coli that will mess you up no matter where it comes from.
I’m somewhat obsessive about sterilization because I spend a lot of time in third-world villages where the sanitation is poor. Being obsessive keeps us healthy, in part because we haven’t developed the same immunities as the locals, and in part because we prefer not to live with the chronic illnesses and infections they tolerate daily. Not all bacteria are our friends. And then there are the parasiites and viruses…
I haven’t gotten sick from my Nalgene that I’m aware of. But I’ve found that eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies (unwashed even, as long as they’re organic) has seemed to make me much more resistant to illnesses.
I don’t understand something: Assuming that a plastic bottle is washed well and doesn’t have internal scratches that can harbor bacteria, the only problem in reusing the bottle would be that a substance like bisphenol A or DHEA might leach out of it and enter the water. But if the bottle is only going to be used for unheated water, wouldn’t a TDS meter (a meter that measures the amount of total dissolved solids per million parts in water) reveal whether a bottle is leaching stuff – why must I throw out old bottles that I’ve cleaned well? Why not just do a TDS check on the water entering it, let the water sit in it for a few hours, and then do another TDS check on it to see if the amount of dissolved solids rose? Is the reason that people don’t mention this because most people don’t have such a meter or have never heard of it, or is the reason that these meters aren’t precise, and these substances can harm a person even in small amouhts. But parts per million seems like a pretty small amount to me. Anyone have any thought on this?
Thanks
I personally boil it…perfectly clean every time, with no detergants or whatnot, and it smells darn good.
I have a Nalgene. I’ll continue to use mine until it wears its’ design off. As far as how to clean, I put dish soap at the bottom of the bottle and then run hot water through it until the soap is gone. I usually put the lid and sipper in the top rack of the dishwasher. (if you use the bottom rack, it melts)
In regards to safer drinking, using a freshly sterile glass/clay is best really, all plastic retains bacteria and nalgenes get funky after a day if you use something other than water because there’s sugars that bacteria are all into…not to mention the saliva contributions… it’s simple. wash it with soap and throw the bottle away when it’s looking like it’s had a good run.
Before bed I always fill up my nalgene with water for the long night, so I don’t have to go upstairs for a drink of water. Then, later on in the night, I might also use that same nalgene to store the urine that water helped make. Now I don’t know about all the fuss with these fancy chemicals, but I’ve found that a good thorough rinsing usually makes me feel confident about the sanctity of my nalgene bottle. I haven’t had any problems besides some serious dental work and a few overfilled bottles (only when been drinking), but if rinsing isn’t good enough for you then try storing the nalgene in the freezer when you are not using it.
I believe the bacteria keep the leeching chemicals in check and vice versa, so stick with your nalgene
[...] of water using it. In fact, I rarely use a drinking glass. I wash my Nalgene about once a week (see this post for bacteria info, including petri dish photos). If anyone was going to suffer ill health effects from using a Nalgene, it’d be me. No [...]