Plastic water bottles, hot cars and breast cancer: What you need to know about PET and BPA

[Guest guest]

I figure most people drink out of plastic water bottles.

Thought this was a very well-rounded piece................Lynn

Plastic water bottles, hot cars and breast cancer:

What you need to know about PET and BPA

By Dr. Z

Recently, we’ve received a number of inquiries about whether there’s an

increased

 

risk of breast cancer in women who drink water from plastic water

bottles, especially from those bottles that might have been left in a hot

car. The assertion is that the heat in the car causes the plastic bottle

to release harmful chemicals into the water, which is then consumed

leading to inadvertent ingestion of potential carcinogens. This claim has

been the subject of many waves of e-mails that get forwarded around the

Internet, but which never come with any background or supporting

information.

Some Web sites, like Snopes.com, have debunked these e-mails

as nothing

more than either a hoax or an urban legend. The origin, they say, is

from overblown media reports of a master’s thesis written by a University

of Idaho student whose research has never been confirmed and whose

findings and conclusions have been challenged. The student apparently

found a chemical called DHEA (that was once thought to be a carcinogen)

in samples from reused water bottles. The problem is that the water

bottles are made from a different chemical called polyethylene

terephthalate (PET), which has no relationship whatsoever (not as a raw

material, byproduct or decomposition product) with DHEA. Moreover, DEHA

is a common plasticizer that is used in innumerable plastic items, many

of which are found in the laboratory. For this reason, the student’s

detection of DEHA is likely to have been the result of inadvertent lab

contamination.

So what is PET and is it safe? PET is widely used in food packaging,

especially in water and carbonated beverage bottles because it is

lightweight, doesn’t migrate into the food or liquid, is biologically

inert if ingested and has shown no toxicity or carcinogenicity in animal

testing. In addition, it has no evidence of any estrogen or estrogen-like

activity

(

which might be important with regard to causing breast cancer). So my

conclusion is that PET-containing water bottles are safe to use, are safe

to use more than once and are safe to use even if they’ve been left in a

hot car. There’s just no theoretical or practical reasons why there would

be a problem with these bottles (aside from their huge negative

environmental impact, but that’s another issue). Information on PET

safety

 

can be found on the Plasticsinfo.org website.

But just when you might think it was safe to drink the water, along comes

another chemical called BPA or bisphenol A. Scientists at the CDC

recently

 

reported that they found trace amounts of BPA in the urine of 93 percent

of the people they studied. So now we have to ask what is BPA,

where’s it coming from and is it safe?

BPA is an industrial chemical whose major use is in the production of

polycarbonates and epoxy resins. Polycarbonates are used in various

consumer products, including a number that come into contact with food,

such as certain plastic beverage containers and baby bottles, plastic

dinnerware, and plastic food storage containers. Epoxy resins are part of

the protective linings used in food and beverage cans, and it is likely

that canned food is the major source of human consumption of BPA (in

addition to that from plastic baby bottles). The plastic beverage

containers that use BPA in their manufacture are the hard colored plastic

bottles with the number 7 on the bottom (as opposed to PET bottles that

are clear, softer and have the number 1).

But is BPA safe? The answer to this is much more complex than that for

PET, and it basically comes down to whom you want to believe. That’s

because an expert panel convened by the Center for the Evaluation of

Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) of the National Toxicology Program

found no major health risks in their review of BPA data while the

non-profit Environmental Working Group criticized the panel’s

conclusions, claiming that they endorsed a flawed and biased report that

minimized the risks that BPA poses to humans. In addition, the panel’s

report conflicts with a statement written by 38 scientists who voiced

concern about BPA’s safety in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. Their

concern is that BPA may have biologic effects similar to estrogen and

might therefore promote

breast

cancer and/or cause problems in either the developing fetus or

growing infants.

While the jury is still out on BPA, you can reduce your exposure to it by

avoiding the use of hard plastic products labeled #7, including reusable

water bottles like Nalgene, baby bottles and food storage containers

(especially if you put in hot foods or liquids or if you heat these

products in a microwave). This, however, will not reduce the major source

of BPA, which is from canned food. The Environmental Working Group offers

tips on avoiding BPA exposure

at and has more BPA information on its

 

EnviroBlog.

In summary, PET-containing water bottles that are clear, somewhat soft

and labeled #1 appear to be safe even if exposed to high temperatures,

whereas BPA-containing plastic products that are colored, hard and

labeled #7 may present health concerns (especially when heated) and might

be best avoided.

Dr. Z's Medical Blog -

 

http://blog.healthtalk.com/zimney/plastic-water-bottles-hot-cars-and-breast-cancer-what-you-need-to-know-about-pet-and-bpa/?utm_source=HTNL