Can a bottle of water left in car for a few hours be cancerous and harmful if consumed?
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Answers:
No. There is no scientific evidence to support the idea that heated bottled water left in a car causes cancer. It's a rumor. A myth that many people believe despite repeated reassurance that its an urban legend. Speculation is that a lack of education (about cancer) has resulted in people believing these myths.
Please read the following reports from reputable sources:
American Cancer Society: Email Hoax Bottled Water
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/med/conten...
Urban Legends: Bottled Water Rumor
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical...
ACS: Rumors, Myths and Half Truths
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/med/med_6.
ACS: Many Still buy into common cancer myths
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/nws/conten...
um no because it is still water, there is no chemical change taking place and no contamination getting in
All those Sparklettes trucks better take cover!
No, this is a myth. Go to Snopes and it has the info. on that myth.
Hardly likely, but his point is that the plastics are supposed to leach chemicals into the water, and I guess he is saying the heat will accelerate this process. This is why you are not supposed to microwave food in plastic. Which I do anyway. I mean, you have to be reasonable.
Cancerous? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
No. There is an e-mail going around the internet that leaving drinking water in the car and then consuming can lead to cancer. This is a false claim, please read the excerpt below.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water as a packaged food product and, for bottled water and all other foods and their packaging, FDA has determined that PET meets standards for food contact materials.
The basis for [the e-mail was] a college student's masters thesis that was not subject to peer review and did not reflect a level of scientific rigor that would provide accurate and reliable information about the safety of these products. Fortunately, FDA requires a much higher standard to make decisions about food contact packaging. DEHA, as mentioned in the email is neither regulated nor classified as a human carcinogen. Further, DEHA is not inherent in PET plastic as raw material, byproduct or decomposition product. DEHA has been cleared by FDA for food contact applications and would not pose a health risk even if present. DEHA is a common plasticizer used in many plastic items, many of which are found in the lab setting. For this reason, the student's detection (see comment above) is likely to have been the result of inadvertent lab contamination.
Also note that PET plastics used for bottled water containers are not unique to this product type and is the same as PET plastics used to package other common foods and beverages.
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