Toxic elements in beer bottles

If you don't lick the outside of your bottles, you'll be OK.

(The real issue is disposal, I think, not use...)

 

Well, it's certainly a legit journal outlet, so this would be good for brewers/materials managers to think about when they source glass from abroad. The real issue will be recycling/re-use when domestic and off-shore glass gets mixed in for another generation of bottle use. Yikes.

 

I guess they are talking about “painted” bottles like stone?

I never knew there was UV reducing glass.

Enjoy

 

I think it's nice name for green bottles. Still let's UV in the beer just at reduced levels compared to clear glass.

 

Why cans are best, cheers.

 

Essentially this article is warning about touching the artwork on the outside of bottles. It has nothing to do with the beer/wine/spirits inside the bottles. Yes, the artwork on bottles such as Stone, Almanac, etc. with more than just paper on the outside most definitely have levels of these chemicals. It's pretty much just saying that the levels on the bottle can degrade, especially in water, and you should wash your hands before sticking your fingers in your mouth after touching said bottle.

TL;DR: Nothing IN the beer bottles is actually harmful. It's the artwork.

 

Other than alcohol

 

Though some will argue the safety of the BPA in the can lining. The FDA says not to worry though.

 

I just read a study that said lead and cadmium are good for your heart.

 

Brought to you by your friends at the American Association of Lead And Cadmium Miners....

 

The REAL scary thing is the high level of DiHydrogen Monoxide in the beer itself. That stuff kills people.

 

Sadly its in just about everything we consume that is canned, avoiding it is next to impossible.

 

Yup, real dangerous stuff. Maybe we should replace it with D2O?

 

The paper speaks to green glass and UV blocking glass.

Are you saying UV blocking glass is just a green glass?

Enjoy

 

UV-blocking sounds higher-tech

 

That was my takeaway from skimming through the paper.

 

Not according to this patent - US4253878A
Light protective bottle glass(Molson & Carling O'Keefe)
(or several others, as listed*).

* Like this Heineken Patent.

 

In my profession I investigate/clean-up these compounds like lead, cadmium, and chromium* (and more) in soils and water and compared to what I handle I was initially surprised at how high the reported concentrations on the bottles are. Then I reminded myself that the risk factors applied to determine acceptable safety in a manufactured product with a specific use, are very different from risk factors applied to a chemical in soil and water... when something is released "into the wild" it's much harder to calculate risk, so it's a different ballgame.

* - Sidenote regarding Chromium, little can be said about health risks without specifying trivalent/Cr(III) and hexavalent/Cr(VI) forms. Cr(III) is relatively safe; Cr(VI) is extremely toxic.

Anyway... @MNAle is probably right here:

Yeah... the average person is not chipping the enamel off bottles and eating it, and if they are, they probably have worse problems anyway. So the issue is more disposal (i.e. leaching in landfills]. It could be a problem for recycling too, because when the glass is melted down those heavy metals would mix in, or require cleaning first and then the cleaning wastes would need to be disposed correctly. Another potential risk is the manufacturers of these designer bottles would have large quantities of paints/enamels with very high concentrations of these compounds, and the application process could be a risk to those workers or emitted to the environment in waste streams [but that all happens in 3rd world sweatshops that no one here gives a second thought to. ]

But at any rate, Even though the risk to consumers/general public is probably extremely low, I would still agree with the researcher that there are concerns and cost-effective alternatives exist that the industry should switch to.

 

We were just talking about beer testosterone and beer tits....BPA beer tits, now it makes sense