Any humidifiers without the Bisphenol A plastic?

A couple of years ago we had some active discussions in this forum about Bisphenol A in the plastic used in the humidifiers. At that time both Resmed and Respironics products contained. It took a while for me to get an offical letter from them stating that their products contained Bisphenol A. Initially all my enquires were replied with a deflection: "All our products comply with all the regulations"

At that time my guess was at least both of these main companies had designs underway to replace with another plastic. Does anybody know any humidifiers out there without Bisphenol A?

At that time I had made a home made (glass jar) heating humidifier. But since then my jar broke, and I have not taken the time to replace it . Since I would by buying a new cpap + humidifier, I would like to get a B-A free one, if available.

I believe the consensus was that the chemical was unlikely to be of significant danger
unless used in baby nursing bottles. I certainly would not allow unsubstantiated fear
prevent me from getting treatment.
I honestly believe if there were a clear and present danger, the tank material would be changed by now.

I would expect BPA to be a much bigger problem for something like bottled water where water goes into a new bottle and sits for weeks or months while soaking up BPA. It would probably be a somewhat smaller concern for something where you put something like baby formula into a new bottle and use it once.

I would assume that if BPA leaches out of the the humidifier tank into the water, it would leach the most into the first few loads of water, and would drop dramatically over time. There's a limited amount of BPA in the tank, so it can't keep leaching out forever.

However, I understand your concerns, and have no data about how quickly the BPA level will drop over time as you use it.

You could help somewhat if you rinse the tank, empty it, and refill just before bedtime every night.

I honestly believe if there were a clear and present danger, the tank material would be changed by now.

Wishful thinking. A ban in BPA in food packaging was defeated by plastics industry lobbyists, except in baby bottles and sippy cups. BPA still lines most cans and is present in a great deal of food packaging, in those handy fancy plastic storage containers, the bottles we purchase our distilled water in, and our CPAP machines. Yet the danger IS clear and present, the scientific community knows this but politics, as usual, trumps public safety.

However, when I weigh the immediate danger of untreated severe apnea vs BPA exposure, there's not a lot of choice for now. I have banned plastic containers from my kitchen for the most part (easier because I no longer eat packaged foods) to minimize exposure, but the CPAP issue is a concern.

I'm interested to learn how the glass based homemade humidifier is made.

Janknitz wrote:Wishful thinking. A ban in BPA in food packaging was defeated by plastics industry lobbyists, except in baby bottles and sippy cups. BPA still lines most cans and is present in a great deal of food packaging, in those handy fancy plastic storage containers, the bottles we purchase our distilled water in, and our CPAP machines. Yet the danger IS clear and present, the scientific community knows this but politics, as usual, trumps public safety.

Hogwash.

The evidence that BPA is harmful in the levels we are exposed to is tenuous at best. It's been studied and it was concluded it wasn't a problem. Some others have done some studies and found very weak evidence that there may be a problem after all.

Maybe the plastic industry was able to defeat the bans because the risk was minimal. I don't trust the industry lobbyists or the government regulators, but you can't trust the chicken little crowd that believes every chemical is dangerous. We'd be living in the woods eating nothing but leaves if you let the anti-chemical crowd make all the decisions.

The media loves to publish stories that "X has been shown to cause toenail cancer." If you look at the link, you may well find that the test animals took 1 million times the dose that most people are exposed to, and there was still only a very small and statistically tenuous connection to cancer. Then you find that 3 studies that repeated the test didn't find any connection.

BPA may or may not be dangerous, but the fact that industry successfully fought regulations doesn't mean the proposed regulation was a good idea. The fact that someone found some possible evidence of some medical problem in the animals exposed to high concentrations of BPA doesn't mean that it's of meaningful risk to the population at large.

All of these risks have to be evaluated properly. Unfortunately, our system of corrupt politicians, corrupt corporations, sensationalist media, publicity seeking prophets of doom, emotional nutjobs who are afraid of anything, and abysmally ignorant citizenry makes it difficult to properly evaluate the risks.

Note I'm not saying BPA IS safe. I'm pointing out that the BPA opponents don't have a clear case.

You might say "I don't want to take any risk, BPA should be banned." The same could be said for sugar, red meat, eggs, aspirin, milk, herbal medicine, paint, gasoline, rubber, electricity, tap water, etc."

archangle wrote: Hogwash.

The evidence that BPA is harmful in the levels we are exposed to is tenuous at best. It's been studied and it was concluded it wasn't a problem. Some others have done some studies and found very weak evidence that there may be a problem after all.

Maybe the plastic industry was able to defeat the bans because the risk was minimal. I don't trust the industry lobbyists or the government regulators, but you can't trust the chicken little crowd that believes every chemical is dangerous. We'd be living in the woods eating nothing but leaves if you let the anti-chemical crowd make all the decisions.

The media loves to publish stories that "X has been shown to cause toenail cancer." If you look at the link, you may well find that the test animals took 1 million times the dose that most people are exposed to, and there was still only a very small and statistically tenuous connection to cancer. Then you find that 3 studies that repeated the test didn't find any connection.

BPA may or may not be dangerous, but the fact that industry successfully fought regulations doesn't mean the proposed regulation was a good idea. The fact that someone found some possible evidence of some medical problem in the animals exposed to high concentrations of BPA doesn't mean that it's of meaningful risk to the population at large.

All of these risks have to be evaluated properly. Unfortunately, our system of corrupt politicians, corrupt corporations, sensationalist media, publicity seeking prophets of doom, emotional nutjobs who are afraid of anything, and abysmally ignorant citizenry makes it difficult to properly evaluate the risks.

Note I'm not saying BPA IS safe. I'm pointing out that the BPA opponents don't have a clear case.

You might say "I don't want to take any risk, BPA should be banned." The same could be said for sugar, red meat, eggs, aspirin, milk, herbal medicine, paint, gasoline, rubber, electricity, tap water, etc."

i'm with you on this one. i'd also like to say where are the lawsuits? if there were a real problem i would think that some (or many) ambulance chaser lawyer would already have made progress with a class action lawsuit. afterall, 100% of the people that are exposed to this substance will die someday. LOL....

If your worried about BPA in the water tank, replace the water before its all gone. It has a very high vapor point so its going to stick in the water longer than the water will until there isn't anything left.

-tim wrote:If your worried about BPA in the water tank, replace the water before its all gone. It has a very high vapor point so its going to stick in the water longer than the water will until there isn't anything left.

Good point, I hadn't thought about different vapor points. Maybe BPA or some other leachate from the tank plastic is what causes the mystery burning smell when you run the tank dry with distilled water.

I should probably be a little more diligent about not running the tank dry. Thanks.

-tim wrote:If your worried about BPA in the water tank, replace the water before its all gone. It has a very high vapor point so its going to stick in the water longer than the water will until there isn't anything left.

AND....at least with the ResMed tank - the water never touches the plastic.

Randyp1234 wrote:

-tim wrote:If your worried about BPA in the water tank, replace the water before its all gone. It has a very high vapor point so its going to stick in the water longer than the water will until there isn't anything left.

AND....at least with the ResMed tank - the water never touches the plastic.

Very good point. The water does touch the plastic in the Respironics tanks.

Randyp1234 wrote:[
AND....at least with the ResMed tank - the water never touches the plastic.

What is the resmed humidifier tank made out of?

Midnightowl, a respironics user

my H5i tank (for the S9) has a metal bottom that the water sits in. Kind of a mostly square cup. this was done to let the heat transfer up to the water. The yellow water level gage is plastic however and dips into the water when you have a reasonable amount of water in the tank.

The lid of the tank and the baffles are plastic so it is impossible to pour water into the tank without getting it in contact with the plastic while it is being filled.

MidnightOwl wrote:

Randyp1234 wrote:[
AND....at least with the ResMed tank - the water never touches the plastic.

What is the resmed humidifier tank made out of?

I found one reference to M series tanks being polycarbonate. I found no reference for S9 or PRS1 water tank material composition, but it looks a lot like polycarbonate.

Polycarbonate is usually made from BPA and phosgene. This sounds worse and worse the deeper you dig.

I'll risk it.

Apnea would kill me whole lot faster.

[quote="MidnightOwl
What is the resmed humidifier tank made out of?

Midnightowl, a respironics user

The bottom part of the ResMed "non-cleanable" water tank is made out of aluminum.
The bottom part of the ResMed "cleanable" water tank is made out of stainless steel.

The bottom part of either tank is the only part that touches the heating plate.

Although the early ResMed "non-cleanable" water tanks could not be taken apart, the one I got with my S9 AutoSet in January 2012 does come apart just like the "cleanable" one, but you still can not put it in the dishwasher.