Don't Drink the Water! At Least Until You Read This First!

A recent University of Florida study of bottled water from China suggests a great warning for Americans – don’t drink the liquid from a plastic bottle if you’ve left it somewhere warm for a long period of time. Plastic water bottles are made from a material called polyethylene terephthalate which, when heated, releases potentially harmful chemicals. This includes the mineral antimony and a “gender-bender” called bisphenol A or BPA.

The US Federal Drug Administration does not consider the low levels of BPA in beverage containers to be much of a concern, but some health officials, including those at the Mayo Clinic think that BPA can have negative effects on children’s health.

Plastic water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate which when heated releases the chemicals antimony and BPA
Plastic water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate which when heated releases the chemicals antimony and BPA

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) considers antimony is a carcinogen (causes cancer) and studies on BPA show that it acts as a xenoestrogen (our bodies see it as estrogen). The study showed that the longer plastic bottled water stays heated, the more of these chemicals are released into the liquid content. One of the lead authors of this study from the University of Florida warned against leaving bottled water in a hot garage for weeks on end or in your car all day long during the hot summer months.

What Are Our Alternatives?

In addition to the potential of chemicals leeching into the beverage that’s stored in the plastic bottle, there are also hidden dangers in the water itself. At least 40% of the bottled water comes directly from the tap (Municipal Water Supplies) and are also filled with chemicals and or bacteria. I decided about a year ago that I would only drink filtered water from a safe container. I found one that takes out greater than 99.999994% of all the impurities and I can use water from virtually any source. If you are interested and want further information, please see the new Puritii Water Filtration System.
Source of University study: Ying-Ying Fan, Jian-Lun Zheng, Jing-Hua Ren, Jun Luo, Xin-Yi Cui, Lena Q. Ma. Effects of storage temperature and duration on release of antimony and bisphenol A from polyethylene terephthalate drinking water bottles of China. Environmental Pollution, 2014; 192: 113 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.05.012