Don't Drink the Water – if it's Stored Warm

Plastic water bottles are frequently made from polyethylene terephthalate. When heated or stored in warm areas, the material releases the chemicals antimony and BPA.
Plastic water bottles are frequently made from polyethylene terephthalate. When heated or stored in warm areas, the material releases the chemicals antimony and BPA.

Plastic water bottles are frequently made from polyethylene terephthalate (PETE). When heated or stored in warm areas, the material releases the chemicals antimony and BPA. It’s that time of the year – Springtime turning into Summer. Spring sports are just starting. I remember when my children were younger, moms and dads would schedule which day they were to bring water or juice or other refreshments to their children’s sporting events like soccer or baseball. Plastic bottles of water were often stored in the trunks of cars or in the backs of SUVs. But is this really safe?

Possible Dangers from Drinking Warm Bottled Water

Americans and others can take a warning from a study done at the University of Florida of bottled water in China. Now I know you’re thinking I’m not using bottled water from China, but this warning is for any water stored in plastic – Don’t drink the liquid if it’s been left somewhere warm for a long time.

PETE-1

Most plastic water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (the recycle code on the bottom of the bottle is the number “1”). When heated, PETE releases the chemicals antimony and bisphenol A. Antimony is considered a carcinogen (causes cancer) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) and BPA is a “gender-bender” which means that it acts as an estrogen in our bodies. Some health official at the Mayo Clinic believe that BPA can cause a negative effect on children’s health.

Because Chinese citizens have less faith in the tap water supplies that bottled water, some store their bottled water in car trunks for weeks. Most Americans don’t store their bottled water that long in trunks or backs of SUVs, but where and how was that bottled water stored in warehouses or garages before it was place in the trunk? In 2011, the last year on record, 9.6 billion gallons of bottled water was consumed in China and 9.1 billion in the US. Occasional drinking of bottled water may be safe, but regular use may add up.

For more information on the purity of our water and how to get a safer water to drink, follow this link to learn more about to get purer water.

Source

Ying-Ying Fan, Jian-Lun Zheng, Jing-Hua Ren, Jun Luo, Xin-Yi Cui, Lena Q. Ma. Effects of storage temperature and duration on the 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.