BPA is an acronym that stands for bisphenol A. It is an industrial chemical used in plastics for more than 50 years—plastics such as water bottles. While plastics have their utility in modern life, the danger of using them is that chemicals like BPA have a tendency to seep out of the plastics and into the food or water contained by the plastics (Bauer). This is all the more worrisome because BPA can have adverse health effects. Though there are no known deaths directly correlated with drinking bottled water, chemicals such as BPA cause damage eventually that can lead to terminal illnesses such as cancer. It does not take much exposure to chemicals from plastics used to contain drinking water for the harmful effects to occur. Numerous studies have shown that chemicals like BPA are hazardous. Mariah Blake of Mother Jones reports that a 2012 study “by 12 prominent scientists found ‘substantial evidence’ that hormone-altering chemicals are damaging, even at minute doses. BPA, the most studied estrogen-mimicking compound, has been linked to a long list of maladies, including to asthma, cancer, infertility, low sperm count, heart disease, liver problems, and ADHD.” The fact that these chemicals are commonly found in bottled water bottles is bad enough for the imbiber of the water—but it’s actually worse: “In some cases, the effects appear to be handed...

In other words, entire future generations can be harmed by these chemicals. Thus, what gets sold to the public as a good thing—pure water from natural springs—is actually harmful because of the agents in the plastic bottles themselves.
While BPA has not been linked directly to cancer, it can harm the body in ways that can then make cancer more likely to occur (Blake). In other words, drinking water from bottles that contain harmful chemicals like BPA increases one’s risk of getting cancer. Of course, it also increases the risk of infertility, heart disease, and possible genetic disorders for one’s children. There is not much good that can be said about a container that essentially has poison in it. Why would anyone drink water from a cup that has soaked in poison? Yet this is one what effectively does when one drinks water from a plastic bottle.

Because BPA and other chemicals in plastics used in bottled water can harm the body and potentially lead to the development of cancer or other terminal defects, plastic bottles should be avoided whenever possible. Those who do not want to drink water out of the tap for fear of the chemicals in it might worry that now they have no good alternatives—but this is not true. There…