PP Or PC, How To Choose Plastic Water Bottle?

PC(polycarbonate), one of the most common plastics. This material itself is non-toxic, especially for making baby bottles, space cups and so on. It is controversial because it contains BPA. In theory, as long as 100% of BPA is converted into plastic structure in the process of making PC, it means that there is no BPA in the product, and it will become no threat to health. However, if a small amount of BPA is not converted into PC plastic structure, it may release into food or drinks, threatening the health and safety of users, especially adolescents.

To choose the right plastic water bottle, you need to understand PC and PP first.

PP is the abbreviation of polypropylene. It has good heat resistance. The products can be sterilized at temperatures above 100 without external force and deformation at 150 ℃. It is one of the most common plastics used in microwave ovens. However, careful investigation will find that PC products are often more expensive than PP products on the market. Customers tend to rush to the concept of “the more expensive, the better the quality” to select. In fact, the price difference is because the price of one ton of PC is much higher than that of one ton of PP in the current market. Comparing the two materials, it is found that the wear resistance of PP is worse than that of PC. Therefore, when making transparent cups, PC is generally used as the material, and PC products are more beautiful than PP products. But from the safety point of view, the processing temperature of PP plastics is 180 – 240 ℃, so boiling water will not decompose it, so PP is safer than PC.

Does boiling water in PC water bottles do harm?

General PC plastic water bottles can withstand the temperature of – 30 – 140 ℃, but this is the physical properties of the material, just that this material will not crack and melt when used at this temperature. But from the point of view of food safety, we will find that the higher the temperature is, the more BPA will be released from PC, and the faster it will be. So PC poses a health risk because it releases BPA at high temperatures.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a kind of material which is often used to synthesize PC and epoxy resin in industry. In modern industry, BPA can be said to be ubiquitous, from mineral water bottles, medical devices to the inside of food packaging, there are its shadow. Every year, nearly 27 million tons of bisphenol A-containing plastics are produced worldwide. Although it is of great industrial use, its harm to human is not small. According to research, BPA can lead to endocrine disorders, and may even cause cancer and obesity caused by metabolic disorders. The European Union believes that BPA-containing bottles can induce premature puberty and bans the production of BPA-containing baby bottles from March 2, 2011. Therefore, it is better not to use PC water bottle to fill hot water, let alone put it in the microwave oven.