If you’re like half the nation, you’ve probably thrown out at least a few plastic water bottles of some variety during the last year with the latest news that Bisphenal A (BPA), a chemical commonly found in many common household items, may be dangerous to our health. This can add even more stress to the already difficult task of storing enough water (14 gallons per person) for your family.

If you’re not already familiar with the BPA concern, essentially some limited research is suggesting that BPA may cause developmental problems, cancer, or other issues, particularly to individuals without strong immune systems, such as pregnant women, infants and children. BPA is best known for being in plastics such as water bottles and baby bottles, but it lines inside of most canned items as well which may actually be more of a concern.

But before you throw out all of your water storage, take a minute to put the concern in perspective. The BPA studies are limited and only performed on laboratory animals. The FDA has said there isn’t need for concern, while the National Toxicology Program has said we should be concerned. Pretty much everyone agrees that further research is needed. Only a small amount of BPA is leached into food and liquids and negative effects are most likely incurred over prolonged exposure.

In short, BPA concerns, although they may have some validity, should not prevent you from storing water. Drinking water that may have trace amounts of harmful chemicals in it for two weeks is not going to kill you. Not having any water stored in an emergency is a much greater risk. If you don’t have any water stored, this post’s for you.

Not much has been said about the risk of eating canned food. Again, having food that may be ever so slightly contaminated is a lot better than not having any food at all.

Perhaps the best thing we can do is focus on the things we know will prevent disease–healthful eating and regular exercise. Plenty of conclusive evidence exists to support the positive effects of a regular exercise along with diet full of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. In terms of relative importance, spend your time focusing on the things that will strengthen your body against the risks not yet totally understood.

We all know that we can live without food for quite some time, but that we can’t live without water for more than a couple of days. How long could you go if you didn’t have running water?

FEMA recommends at least a three day supply. ProvidentLiving.org recommends a 14 day supply. That’s a gallon per person per day. Doing the math in your head? It might be quite a bit of water, depending on your family size. Take into account the guidelines for storing water, and you might be feeling rather overwhelmed.

Perhaps the driving force behind this blog, and the one that sets me apart from so many other sites, is that I firmly believe that in many things, and especially when it comes to food storage, doing something is a whole lot better than nothing. Let me tell you the story of our water storage.

When we were first married, we had very little space, particularly for food storage. We also weren’t sure how long we would live in that little place, but I felt like it was important to store some water while we were there. It’s recommended that you store water in PETE plastic–typically juice or pop bottles. I’d save the bottles when we had them, but we really don’t drink much juice or pop (or soda for those of you who speak that language) and I didn’t want to buy 28 gallons of it just so we could have the bottles.

So here’s what I did: I kept a stash of water bottles on hand. Before the plastics scare, we would always keep all of our water bottles full of water in the cabinet. That was great–we always had a water bottle ready when we needed it, and when our water was shut off due to some remodeling, we didn’t have to worry about finding something to drink.

I also did what they say you shouldn’t do–I washed out milk jugs and stored water in them. This is where I believe it’s better to do something rather than nothing. Milk jugs break down and really aren’t ideal to store water. But I knew that we wouldn’t have them for very long and I would rather have water that had been in a milk jug for six months than none at all.

When we moved we dumped the milk jugs and brought our more ideal juice bottles with us. We didn’t have nearly enough water, so I put it at the top of my priority list and bought a 5 gallon water storage container at Macey’s. Shortly after that, we learned that we could get a used but free 55 gallon barrel–we just had to wash out the fruit juice remnants. That was a little bit of a project, but now we have close to 70 gallons of water stored–plenty for our little family.

Moral of the story: think about what you can do, and just do your best with what resources you have.

Water storage guidelines:
Provident Living
FEMA
Red Cross