Re-using plastic water bottles causes CANCER!!!1!!

[Third Eye Open]

So, I'm sure this has been done to death in some thread I can't find, the ones I could find involve microwaving plastic, which has been debunked.

My roommate is convinced that me refilling my water bottle is going to give me cancer, she says her grandfather got cancer for this same reason and wont leave me alone about it. My first instinct was that this is woo, the google gave me mixed answers, but seemed tipped in the favor of woo. I thought I'd triple check here anyway.

Is there any possibility that using a water bottle multiple times will leek some 'chemicals' out that cause cancer? Is this any different than using a plastic cup multiple times?

The google told me that there was problems found with some "plastic #7" (?) but didn't say what items this plastic was in.
Sounds like a big load of 'evil companies poison consumers' to me, but just thought I'd triple check!

 

[Dragonrock]

I've never heard of it, but that probably doesn't mean much.

Plus, how does she know it was plastic water bottles that gave her grandfather cancer?

 

[commandlinegamer]

Using glass and particularly crystal I suppose could leach out lead. Best to drink directly from the river (as long as there's no sheep upstream, in which case you could catch liver-fluke). Scratch that, open your mouth and wait for rain. Acid rain you say? Hmm, we might have a problem then. Thinks....

 

[blutoski]

So, I'm sure this has been done to death in some thread I can't find, the ones I could find involve microwaving plastic, which has been debunked.

My roommate is convinced that me refilling my water bottle is going to give me cancer, she says her grandfather got cancer for this same reason and wont leave me alone about it. My first instinct was that this is woo, the google gave me mixed answers, but seemed tipped in the favor of woo. I thought I'd triple check here anyway.

Is there any possibility that using a water bottle multiple times will leek some 'chemicals' out that cause cancer? Is this any different than using a plastic cup multiple times?

The google told me that there was problems found with some "plastic #7" (?) but didn't say what items this plastic was in.
Sounds like a big load of 'evil companies poison consumers' to me, but just thought I'd triple check!

I've heard this before.

I'll tell ya: that's exactly what the bottled water manufacturers and their product retailers wanted to hear. Don't refill the bottle with free tapwater for free - buy a whole new bottle at full price. Or die of cancer.


Snopes: Claim: Reusing, freezing, or heating plastic water bottles will cause them to break down into carcinogenic compounds or release dioxins.] (MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION)

 

[Kel]

Could it have to do with Bisphenol A (BPA)?

There was a huge thing here in Canada last year which involved retailers pulling plastic water bottles from their shelves, and certain plastic products manufacturers releasing new versions of products (or placing stickers on old products), proclaiming them to be BPA-Free.

 

[Eyeron]

This is a new one on me. What about drinking from plastic soda bottles? Also, why not anything plastic? Maybe we should just ban oil because some plastic products use oil? What about the plastic wrappings around food such as pizza and cereal? Not to mention the glad ware? Oh, don't forget plastic bags too! Holy **** it's an epidemic!

We've just got to ban plastic. That';s all there is to it. Please, think of all the children that are being affected by plastic.menace. You don't want to harm children do you? If you don't want to ban plastic you obviously want to hurt children, and that makes you a monster.

 

[king catfish]

Forigve me some totally biased fatherly pride

Not totally on topic, but... my 6-year old daughter, [shameless bragging] who tested proundly gifted going into second grade [/shameless bragging] and is also a little sweetheart, got a bee in her bonnet about Bisphenol-A (where did she hear about it, I wonder? We don't watch much TV) bought me a Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottle for father's day.

(Of course, it has a plastic cap, so go figure.)

Disclaimer: I have no interest in plugging Klean Kanteen's products and, in fact, know exactly squat about them or this whole issue.

 

[CurtC]

Could it have to do with Bisphenol A (BPA)?

BPA is only one of the kinds of plasticizer used. Normally, PVC is hard and brittle, so it's mixed with other chemicals that make it softer and flexible. You know that "plastic" smell, like of a new plastic shower curtain? That's the plasticizer, and it does escape from the plastic PVC over time.

However, I know of no data to suggest that the amounts that you'd get from drinking from a plastic water bottle could be harmful.

In addition, I would think that the highest rate of plasticizer leaching out would be a) when the plastic is new, and b) when the water has been sitting in it the longest, both of which occur in bottles you buy at the store. However big the problem is, it is a much bigger problem drinking from new bottles than it is drinking water that you've refilled into the bottles.

How did she decide that this caused her grandfather's cancer? We're all exposed to about a million different things that could cause cancer - how did she decide that plastic water bottles did him in?

 

[Careyp74]

[shameless bragging] who tested proundly gifted going into second grade [/shameless bragging]

Ask your daughter to proof read your posts for you then

 

[bruto]

From what little I've read, there does seem to be some evidence that bisphenol has some potential risks, especially for fetal exposure. Studies seem to conflict, but it's not just woo-woo scaremongering, apparently. Whether it's bad enough to warrant changing water bottles is of course questionable if you're getting more from other sources you can't change. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to find a new water bottle, and metal ones are pretty nice. My wife, who always travels with water, got one of those Kleen Kanteen ones too, and finds that the water tastes better. I've been using a small stainless steel thermos, which has the advantage not only of being metal, but keeping the water cold.

I still use a plastic water bottle when cycling, but that's a different plastic, I think. I don't think there's bisphenol in that soft plastic. I may be wrong. If it kills me, I guess I'll be sorry, but I think I'm more likely to drop dead halfway up some nasty hill, especially if I'm already dying of thirst, so the water bottle stays.

 

[jer_j]

Plastics don't cause cancer. Vaccines cause cancer.

Back before vaccinations, nobody lived long enough to die of cancer. Now that vaccines have raised the average life expectancy, cases of cancer are on the increase. Evil, evil vaccines.

My family and I use plastic containers, and we will continue to do so until clear evidence comes out linking them to cancer - something beyond this "the results are mixed so the person who can get on TV and create a stir with the most sensational possibility sets the tone of public perception" nonsense. I'm pretty sure we'll be fine.

 

[jhunter1163]

EVERYTHING gives you cancer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIUYzbYeKA

 

[Third Eye Open]

How did she decide that this caused her grandfather's cancer? We're all exposed to about a million different things that could cause cancer - how did she decide that plastic water bottles did him in?

I didn't ask, I tend to try to not have conversations (or interactions in general) with my roommates. My guess was that he got cancer for no apparent reason as some people do, and needing some reason to latch onto she grasped onto some article or tv show and said AHA! That's it!

There have been some good replies here and now I am even more sure this is silly.
New questions I have:
1. Why would it require that you re use the bottle to get the chemicals? Is there some protective coating on the plastic that wears off as you use it and allows the chemicals out?
2. Why does this apply only to plastic water bottles and not Tupperware or spatulas or anything else plastic?
3. What about simply touching plastic? My keyboard is plastic, my PS3 controller is plastic.

 

[shadron]

You want something poisonous, just think about all the hydrocarbon materials which ooze out of asphalt every day and evaporate into the air. And that goo that they use when retopping paved surfaces. If there is a carcinogenic compound in natural petroleum (and I'd think there have to be thousands), then it's likely they're in asphalt. Then there's the compounds in cement sealers, in floor varnishes, and paints, lead leaching out of lead pipes, copper leaching out of copper pipes, acid in orange juice dissolving stainless steel, selenium concentrating in the most fertile vegetable garden in the US of A, nitrogen in the air (ever hear of rapture of the deep? You don't think that some of that happens even at 1 bar?)

Apart from helium, all gases that can be breathed have a narcotic effect...

My god.

Good thing it's Halloween soon.

 

[MysteryMammal]

I just use a nice, largish sports bottle for all my water needs. I was re-using a pretty nice water bottle that I bought, with water, for about $1.29. But it was pretty flimsy, and I kept getting paranoid that it would crack and leak while I was in the middle of a 5 mile lap, so I went out and spent $6 on a better bottle.

Really, I'm far more paranoid about not having water during my laps than about some chemical that may be present in a water bottle.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Could it have to do with Bisphenol A (BPA)?

There was a huge thing here in Canada last year which involved retailers pulling plastic water bottles from their shelves, and certain plastic products manufacturers releasing new versions of products (or placing stickers on old products), proclaiming them to be BPA-Free.

I could be wrong here, but I think you're confusing a different type of bottle. You're talking about the "Nalgene" bottles that are sold as bottles. In the OP, this thread is about reusing plastic bottles that people buy water in (don't get me started! for most people buying bottled water makes no sense at all!). I'm pretty sure those are HDPE bottles.

As for the point the OP is asking about, if tap water could somehow leach out something toxic from the bottle, why doesn't the tap water that is sold in the bottles originally do that?

ETA: Now I could see a case for arguing that buying bottled water to begin with causes cancer--but not by the mechanism of the bottles. It's because of the extra energy (burning of fossil fuels) required to manufacture the bottles and unnecessarily transport water by truck when we've already got infrastructure for delivering water to houses and buildings of all kind. (That is, the pollution caused by this wasteful use of energy could add to cancer rates.) It's especially absurd where I live (St. Louis), which has about the best municipal water there is. For most residences, the water isn't metered, so since you have to pay the bill already (if you do laundry, like indoor toilets, baths & showers, etc.), you don't pay anything extra to drink as much of it as you like.

ETA: Darn it, I got me started all by myself anyway. . . .

 

[jer_j]

New questions I have:
1. Why would it require that you re use the bottle to get the chemicals?

Because companies want you to buy their "cancer-safe" products, and some people are panic-prone.

Is there some protective coating on the plastic that wears off as you use it and allows the chemicals out?

No.

2. Why does this apply only to plastic water bottles and not Tupperware or spatulas or anything else plastic?

Because the whole theory is irrational and based only on spreading panic to get you to buy "cancer-safe" products.

3. What about simply touching plastic? My keyboard is plastic, my PS3 controller is plastic.

They will also cause cancer as soon as someone develops "cancer-safe" hardware and people realize they should be panicking about these too.


In my humble opinion, we as a society are absurdly healthy, thanks to technology and medicine. But does that make everybody happy? No. Now they need drama to stir up, so they start imagining that we're surrounded by poisons and toxins that are going to kill us. A trip back in time would shock them out of their delusions of a "natural, healthy" past and help them appreciate the health they have.

 

[jasonpatterson]

If it were dangerous to refill a plastic bottle and drink that water soon, it would be at least as dangerous, if not more, to drink the water that was originally in the bottle. After all, it's been stewing in the evil plastic for who knows how long (years, perhaps.)

The only types of plastics that are used in food handling (legally, anyway) are the 'food safe' varieties. In the case of water bottles, this is generally going to be #1 or #2 plastic. However, not all #1 and #2 plastic is food safe because the dyes and other additives that manufacturers can add can be toxic (or simply untested.) That's why you don't go to a hardware store to buy buckets to make beer, wine, pickles, etc, even if they are made of (usually) #2 plastic, but instead get them either secondhand from a restaurant or buy them from a food supply company.

A similar claim is made about PVC pipes, claiming that they contain chemicals that leach out into the water and poison us all. Flexible PVC does contain plasticizers that can leach out over time, but the stuff that water pipes are made of is pretty much pure PVC, as they don't want it to be flexible...

In a nutshell: People are ignorant about chemistry, they fear what they don't know, and they'll believe just about anything they're told.

 

[Beanbag]

Saliva causes cancer, but only when swallowed in small quantities over a long period of time.

Beanbag

 

[The Fallen Serpent]

I find it annoying when someone drinking a bottled soda harps on me for drinking bottled water. Especially since I rarely buy a new one and the arguement is often based on the assumption that I am constantly buying a new bottled water each day (its more like once every six months and just reusing the bottle). It is also hilarious when people try to give me quotes about bottled water being over 99% the same as tap water, just using a different set of filters from the same sources (barring a few companies that don't even bother with that). I sincerely hope they are that similar. That is why I am drinking it. I was thirsty, and wanted water. Of course the usual assumption when people try to convince me to stop drinking bottled water is that I am drinking it out of supposed purity that the bottle water companies market. Mostly it is just the convenience. When in a restaurant I drink from a cup and refuse offered upgrade to whatever bottled water is sold there. In a mall or other place with water fountains I tend to use those water fountains.