Bottled Water Kept in Car, Are You Dare To Drink Now?

Do not to drink bottled water that has been left in a car for any length of time because, supposedly, the heat releases cancer-causing toxins which 'leak' from the plastic into the water.

A new European study published on 2009 raises doubts about the safety of disposable water bottles, which have heretofore been regarded as safe by the FDA and other government health agencies. Researchers in Germany found evidence of a man-made estrogen-like compound leaching into water packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.

Such chemicals, known as "endocrine disruptors," have the potential to inferfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones in the human body.

In the United States, plastic bottles of the type used for commercially marketed water are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives.

Water bottles made from PET plastic leach compounds that mimic the hormone oestrogen raising questions about their safety, say German researchers.

Previous research has focused on plastics containing the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA). During that time regular PET plastic water bottles have maintained a reputation as safe, at least as far as human health is concerned.

But new evidence suggests that PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, may not be so benign after all.

Scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt found that estrogenic compounds leach from the plastic into the water.

It's too soon to say whether drinking out of PET plastic bottles is harmful to human health, says lead researcher Martin Wagner.

But it now appears possible that some as-yet unidentified chemicals in these plastics have the potential to interfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones, just as BPA and phthalates do.

"Having done all of these experiments, I started drinking tap water," says Wagner. "It might have other stuff in it, but at least it doesn't have estrogenic compounds."

The study adds to growing concerns about products that span the plastic spectrum, says Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York.

The specialised yeast, which change colour in the presence of estrogen-like compounds, revealed estrogenic activity in seven of the nine plastic bottles (and both cardboard samples), compared with just three of the nine glass ones.

Overall, Wagner says, levels of these compounds in the water were surprisingly high.

However, the authors of the study say more research is required to determine whether, or to what degree, this poses an actual health risk to humans.