你應該把那個塑料水瓶再灌滿嗎?

你應該把那個塑料水瓶再灌滿嗎?

At some point, you've probably looked at that empty water bottle in the backseat of the car and wondered if it's got just a little more life in it.

在某個時刻，你可能會看著汽車后座上的空水瓶，想知道它是否還有一點生命。

After all, if you're going to use plastic, why not make it at least double-use plastic — rather than add to the mountain of one-hit wonders.

畢竟，如果你打算使用塑料，為什么不至少重復使用塑料呢?

Congratulations for drinking plain-old tap water. But about that plastic ... (Photo: xshot/Shutterstock)

The most well-intentioned among us might even try to turn it into triple- or quadruple-use plastic.

我們當中最善意的人甚至可能試圖把它變成三次或四次使用的塑料。

But there's a price on those good intentions, especially when it comes to your health.

但這些良好的意愿是要付出代價的，尤其是涉及到你的健康時。

The thing is, most single-use water bottles are made from polycarbonate plastics, a pliable and transparent material that would seem ideal for water vessels. And most of those bottles are produced using a chemical compound called polyethylene terephthalate, or PET.

問題是，大多數(shù)一次性水瓶是由聚碳酸酯塑料制成的，這是一種柔韌透明的材料，似乎很適合用來盛水。這些瓶子大多是用一種叫聚對苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)的化合物生產(chǎn)的。

Bottles made with PET have long been considered a safe alternative to the much more studied — and vilified — alternative, Bisphenol-A, or simply BPA.

用PET制造的瓶子長期以來一直被認為是一種安全的替代品，而不是被研究得更深入的替代品——雙酚a或簡單的BPA。

In fact, manufacturers proudly tout their bottles to be BPA-free. And that's for good reason. Several studies have linked BPA to health woes ranging from cancer to heart disease to even behavioral issues. BPA was found to mimic hormones that can create havoc in the human body.

事實上，制造商們很自豪地宣傳他們的產(chǎn)品是不含BPA的。這是有原因的。一些研究已經(jīng)將BPA與健康問題聯(lián)系起來，從癌癥到心臟病，甚至是行為問題。雙酚a被發(fā)現(xiàn)可以模擬荷爾蒙，對人體造成破壞。

But more recent research suggests BPA-free alternatives may not be such saints after all — and in fact may pose similar health threats.

但最近的研究表明，不含BPA的替代品可能并不是最好的選擇——事實上可能會造成類似的健康威脅。

The trouble is chemical compounds don't stay baked into plastic. They're known to leach into the water itself. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles had a two-thirds increase of BPA their urine.

問題是，化合物不會一直留在塑料里。它們會滲入水中。哈佛大學公共衛(wèi)生學院的一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，飲用聚碳酸酯瓶一周的人，其尿液中的BPA含量增加了三分之二。

And those were the results from one-time usage of plastic bottles. What happens when you flush them repeatedly with refills of water? It's easy to imagine more of those chemicals leaching into the water over time.

這些是一次性使用塑料瓶的結果。當你反復用水沖它們的時候會發(fā)生什么?很容易想象，隨著時間的推移，更多的化學物質會滲入水中。

Then there's the problem of microplastics.

還有微塑料的問題。

Last year, scientists from the State University of New York tested 259 containers of bottled water and found tiny pieces of plastic in 93 percent of them. Scientific opinion on whether ingesting plastic, however, remains divided. Some experts suggest the human body is perfectly capable of flushing out contaminants like microplastics.

去年，紐約州立大學的科學家們測試了259個瓶裝水容器，發(fā)現(xiàn)其中93%都有微小的塑料碎片。然而，關于是否攝入塑料的科學觀點仍然存在分歧。一些專家認為，人體完全有能力將微塑料等污染物排出體外。

Even the World Health Organization categorizes the risk from drinking microplastics as "low" — although it hastens to add that more research is needed.

即使是世界衛(wèi)生組織也將飲用微塑料制品的風險歸為“低”類——盡管它還需要更多的研究。

The older the bottle, the bigger the problem

瓶子越舊，問題就越大

It's tempting make plastic water bottles more than a single-use item. (Photo: Alina Avula/Shutterstock)

One thing that we know for certain is that, regardless of the type of plastic, a water bottle collects a lot of dings, dents and creases as it's reused. And those nicks could increase the chances of chemicals leaching into the water.

有一件事我們可以肯定的是，不管塑料是什么類型的，水瓶在重復使用的過程中會收集很多的凹痕和折痕。這些裂縫會增加化學物質滲入水中的機會。

Experts warn that "everyday wear and tear from repeated washings and reuse can lead to physical breakdown of the plastic, such as visible thinning or cracks."

專家警告說，“每天重復的清洗和重復使用會導致塑料的物理損壞，比如明顯的變薄或裂縫。”

Then there's the problem of bacteria — something that also happens to thrive in cracks or dents, thanks to the difficulty of washing those nooks.

還有細菌的問題——由于很難清洗那些角落，細菌也會在裂縫或凹痕中大量繁殖。

While all bacteria isn't necessarily bad, it's probably safe to say you don't want to ingest it on the regular.

雖然并不是所有的細菌都是有害的，但可以肯定地說，你并不想經(jīng)常攝入細菌。

The bottom line? If you really want to be a hero to both the environment and your body, reusing a plastic water bottle probably isn't a good idea. Instead, get out that stainless reusable water bottle that's been in the cabinet and fill it up.

底線?如果你真的想成為環(huán)境和身體的英雄，重復使用塑料水瓶可能不是一個好主意。相反，可以把櫥柜里的那個可重復使用的不銹鋼水瓶拿出來裝滿水。

The best thing you can do is skip bottled water entirely, especially as research continues to pile up on the potential hazards of drinking water from any kind of plastic.

你能做的最好的事情就是完全不喝瓶裝水，尤其是在各種塑料制品對飲用水潛在危害的研究還在不斷增加的情況下。

As Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "This is coming at a good time because the use of bottles for consuming water is getting very bad press now because of its carbon footprint.

正如羅切斯特大學醫(yī)學和牙科學院的莎娜·斯旺告訴澳大利亞廣播公司的那樣。“這來得正是時候，因為瓶裝水的使用由于其碳足跡而受到了非常負面的報道。

"It's just another nail in the coffin of bottled water, the way I see it."

“在我看來，這不過是瓶裝水棺材上的又一顆釘子。”