Americans are becoming more and more environmentally aware. As a result, they are making decisions that will benefit our earth, yet they may be damaging their bodies instead.

You many have heard about the BPA controversy dealing with plastics, specifically water bottles. In sum, research shows that many plastics contain a chemical called Bisphenol A, or BPA. This chemical mimics some of our hormones, thus complicating reproductive and fertility functions. Sounds scary, huh? Well, before you throw out all your plastics, let’s look a little more into this.

All plastics are made of different chemicals. To see what category your water bottle falls under, look at the bottom of your plastic containers and you will see a number within the recycling mark. If your water bottle has a “7″ on the bottom, you may want to rethink using it. Although it has not been proven that BPA is harmful to our bodies, research on lab rats does show we should err on the side of caution.

To be safe, check all your water bottles, and ditch any with a 4, 6, or 7 on them. Codes 1, 2, 3, and 5 should be BPA free. Also, any plastics with a code 1 on them (such as bottled water from the grocery store) should be used ONLY ONCE (think “code 1″ for “one use”) and then trashed. These water bottles hold bacteria in the small cracks that form after one use. But to be eco-friendly, buy yourself a non-BPA, reusable water bottle – there are plenty of them out there (Sigg or HDPE Nalgenes are great choices).