Reuse of Plastic Water Bottles Cancerous - Fact Check

Story:

Bottled water in your car is very dangerous!

On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said that this is what caused her breast cancer. It has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue. Sheryl Crow’s oncologist told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases Dioxin into the water, a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

Pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know that just might save us! To avoid this risk of cancer, use a stainless steel canteen or a glass bottle for water instead of plastic!

LET EVERYONE WHO HAS A WIFE / GIRLFRIEND / MUM /DAUGHTER KNOW PLEASE!

Fact Check:

Common drinks like water, soda and juices are generally sold in bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET bottles), which are single-use disposable bottles, although many people wash these plastic bottles after drinking and reuse them for holding drinking water or other beverages.

Can Reuse of Plastic Bottles Be Cancerous?

Drinking water from heated plastic bottles exposed to high temperatures can in fact be hazardous to health. Studies done on water in PET bottles found some trace amounts of potentially hazardous substances believed to have migrated from the plastic. Sometimes, the plastic bottle manufacturers use chemicals called phthalates to make them flexible and less brittle. These phthalates not only contaminate environment, but can also disrupt the endocrine hormone system in humans and animals with their estrogenic compounds (affecting sex hormones). Under high temperatures, leaching of these chemicals from the plastic bottles into the food and water is quite possible.

The other common type of plastic bottles are made using a chemical called bishphenol A (BPA), to make them rigid and reusable. These are generally used as baby bottles or water bottles used by cyclists. Ingestion of this BPA chemical into water and body in turn was linked to cancer and other reproductive damage in some animals. So, BPA plastic baby bottles were banned for children use. BPA-free plastic bottles have come up ever since.

The important aspect here is, the plastic water bottles come with different manufacturing composition and quality. They decide its susceptibility to chemical leaching under high temperatures. But in ‘general conditions’, plastic bottles contain minuscule amounts of toxic chemicals within the safety limits set by FDA and EPA regulators.

Case of Sheryl Crow

It is a fact, Sheryl Crow discussed her bout with cancer on Ellen Degeneres TV show. She warned people of drinking water from heated plastic bottles. However, she did not attribute it to her cancer directly. Same thing appears on her official website also. It clearly denies presence of dioxins in plastic bottles. Therefore, this part is a hoax which has been circulating ever since that show in 2006.

The safe and best option to avoid these cancer risks however, is to avoid reuse of plastic water bottles and use either glass or stainless steel containers, also because it will save our environment to a great extent.

Like the story mentions, you can share this health awareness message.