Dear DRI SC Colleagues:
As some of you may be aware, significant concerns have arisen about the storage of water in plastic bottles over the past six months. You will remember that we distributed water bottles at our last DRI Workshop in Calgary in January. Some of the more diligent members of our community have examined the bottom of the bottles and found the number "7" - indicating that the water bottles may not have the same health status as safe bottles marked with a "1" on the bottom. As a result of the concerns raised I have been in touch with Awards Canada, the company that supplied the bottles for the DRI workshop, which assured us at the time our order was placed that there were no health risks whatsoever. The following paragraph summarizes the verbal response from Awards Canada.
According to Awards Canada, there was no health concern with our type of bottle when they sold them to us in December. The three manufacturers which were producing the bottles at that time are still manufacturing them and they are still being sold because no one has identified any significant health risk associated with them. According Awards Canada, there is nothing harmfiul about the "7" bottle but they now recommend that people treat the bottles carefully by ensuring that they are not left in long-term storage before use and that they are not put in hot places such as microwave ovens or hot cars with the windows up in the summer.