In his 2007 book Boys Adrift, Sax describes five major factors contributing to what he calls a growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men. One of these five is environmental estrogens from drinks stored in plastic bottles, including baby bottles. Baby toys and pacifiers have contained the stuff too. What stuff? BPA and phthalates, used to soften and condition the plastic. Plastic bottles with recycling #1, used for bottled water and soda, are a key culprit.

Scientists are aware that the chemicals are environmental estrogens, and have focused on their tendency to cause cancer. Animal studies pinpointed the amount that would cause cancer in animals, and acceptable dose limits were created from those studies.

He poses the question: does taking estrogen affect boys and men? In recent years many Americans have been getting their water out of plastic bottles. And soda has been sold in plastic bottles rather than aluminum cans. As a result, Americans find themselves in a big experiment on this question. Aside from whether the plastic additives cause cancer, Sax says he believes they are causing delayed puberty and lost motivation.

The result of the extra estrogens, along with four other factors, is affecting a population of men who haven’t grown up, says Sax. He cites some interesting studies. One looks at men in the age group of 35 to 40. Normally, men this age are married. In fact, only 25 years ago, only 8 percent of American men in this age group had never married. But as of 2006 that 8 percent had nearly tripled. It was up to 22 percent and still rising rapidly. (He cites Eduardo Porter and Michelle O’Donnell, “Facing Middle Age with No Degree and No Wife,” New York Times, Aug. 6, 2006.)

The proportion of men aged 18-35 living at home with parents or relatives has doubled in the last 30 years. Meanwhile 36 percent of babies in the United States in 2004 were born to unmarried women. These statistics cut across all demographic groups.

Congress last year passed a law directing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban one of the estrogen additives, phthalates, from products sold for children as of August, 2009, including pacifiers and baby bottles.

But the Food and Drug Administration is the agency in charge of food and drink containers like water bottles, and it is choosing to believe the 11 industry-funded studies showing small amounts of BPA are safe. (There are 104 independently funded studies showing it is hazardous, according to Catherine Zandonella, MPH, of The Green Guide, an online magazine.)

To be a savvy and safe consumer, be on the lookout for a recycling number of 1, 3, or 7 on the bottoms of plastic bottles. If you see it, don’t use it. Especially, avoid beverages that were allowed to get warm in the plastic bottle, making it easier for the chemicals to seep out. (Acid in soda does this too.) Avoid warming food in plastic containers.

The other four factors in the epidemic of men who don’t grow up named by Sax are:

* Education system changes. Kindergarten has become a very frustrating time for boys, who are expected to sit down and learn to read. They aren’t ready, and as a result they learn to hate school.

* Video games

* ADHD medications

* A scarcity in our culture of traditions for transition to manhood

If this piques your interest, you should read this book. Everyone should read it, I think. It was an eye-opener for me and will be for you too. That’s Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax.

Are you concerned about the trace chemicals in city water and the hazards of plastic water bottles? Find out more about my search for the best pure water answer, which turned out to be a home water filtration system, costing just 8 cents per gallon. Find out about filter alternatives, including shower-head filters, at www.home-water-filter.info .

Instead, you have been drinking bottled water, like plenty of other Americans.  But you need to take a look at some of the negatives. For one thing, in many cases sellers are putting tap water into bottles, after filtering it. It’s not the spring water you might wish for. In addition, the bottled water may have more microbes in it than the tap water, since the FDA, regulating the bottlers, has more lax testing requirements than the EPA, regulating the tap water.

More drawbacks concern the plastic bottles used to hold the water. Sixty million water bottles PER DAY are used in America, and many of them end up in landfills.  Actually, this huge number shouldn’t really surprise us.  Each of us should drink gallons of water per day, right? Drinking it from plastic bottles will quickly mean a lot of discarded bottles.

In addition to creating a huge disposal problem, there’s a big health issue.  Clear plastic water bottles (with a recycling symbol #1, 3, or 7) are very likely to contain BPA, a controversial chemical that leaches out of the plastic, contaminating the water.

According to The Green Guide, an online magazine, a growing number of scientists are uncovering evidence of harm from BPA.  They are finding links to diabetes, infertility, cancer, and childhood hyperactivity, for a total of 104 independent studies showing bad effects from BPA.  At the same time, there are 11 studies, paid for by the industry, which show no harmful effects.  The FDA is choosing to side with the industry on the controversial issue and is allowing use of BPA.

You can find BPA in clear plastic bottles, of course. But it’s also in many other food containers, including canned food cans, baby bottles and toys, and wine vats.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested a large number of Americans in 2004 and found that 95 percent of them had some level of BPA in their urine, according to the Green Guide.

Now, let’s remember that we were drinking bottled water because we wanted pure water, free of contaminants.  Well, bottled water isn’t going to do that for us! We can switch to glass, stainless steel, or plastic with a recycling number of 2, 4, or 5.

Heres how to drink pure water and also control what container I am using: I can get a home water filter , one that triple-filters the water coming out of my kitchen tap or icemaker.  I can bottle this water myself using glass or stainless steel containers, — or BPA-free plastic bottles with recycling symbol #2, 4, or 5.  And here’s the best part: it costs a lot less!  I purify my own water for about eight cents per gallon.

A home water filter can give you with just the abundant, pure water you need, in BPA-free containers of your choosing.  Save money too! Remember, purer from your home water filter costs just 8 cents per gallon.

Let’s think of ways to protect our children. We can carefully choose their foods, favoring organic food where possible.  And we can easily serve them clean, pure water.

Unfortunately the tap water in America contains low levels of a variety of chemicals.  The EPA tests for high levels of certain compounds, but there are others that it does not regulate.  The Environmental Working Group of Washington, D.C., is an activist group that is concerned.

One of the major contaminants in water is in fact caused by an effort to clean it.  Chlorine treatment to remove bacteria results in toxic byproducts called trihalomethanes. Water high in trihalomethanes also confers an increased risk of birth defects, according to a recent study.

The study, published June 2, 2008, in the online journal Environmental Health (www.environmentalhealth.com), tracked nearly 400,000 infants in Taiwan, searching for 11 specific birth defects. The study also recorded whether the pregnant women drank water with high, medium,  or low levels of trihalomethanes.

Researchers found that mothers exposed to high levels of trihalomethanes ran an increased risk of birth defects in their infants in three common areas: holes in the heart, cleft palate, and anencephalus, or absence of most of the brain.

“High” exposure consisted of trihalomethanes measured at a level above 20 ig/L. Exposure at this high level increased the risk of these birth defects from 50 to 100 percent as compared with the “low” level below 5 ig/L.

It’s time to get rid of the bottled water, which studies show is no safer than tap water. Instead, let’s go for the solution that works.  Let’s protect our children! Find out more at home-water-filter.info