Plastic Bottles & Water: Even Reusable Plastic Bottles Leach Hundreds Of Chemicals Into Your Drink

Photo: Emily Bernal, Unsplash

Weird Plastic Bottle Chemicals End Up In Your Water:

A little while ago, there was a big fuss about plastic water bottles.

The problem people pointed-out, was from a chemical called BPA.

This chemical can behave like the hormone Estrogen in some cases.

Well everyone got upset about it, especially people who found out it was in baby bottles.

And slowly but surely, plastic bottles with BPA in them got phased out.

Now we all know Jason Momoa recently got so upset at single-use plastic bottles that he shaved his head.

After this post, he’s going to have to find something else to shave…

The Short Answer:

• A little while ago, there was a minor fiasco about chemicals found in water bottles.
• It was mainly about a pseudo-estrogen called BPA.
• That problem was fixed for the most part.
• But it turns out there are thousands of untested chemicals in things we use every day.
• This new study by U.Copenhagen found them in water bottles again.
• Between 400 and 500 were found in water from clean bottles, depending on age.
• This leaching was probably accelerated by putting plastic water bottles in the dishwasher.
• The dishwasher and its various detergents also led to another 3500 chemicals being found.
• The problem is researchers don’t know the concentrations of these chemicals yet.
• Many of them have not been tested to see if they are harmful to humans in long-term exposure.
• There are still a lot of unknowns.
• Perhaps glass and stainless water bottles might be safer.

Read on to find out the details…

The Many Conveniences Of Modernity, Or: New Levels, New Devils:

So one of the weird truths about living in a more modern age is that we have to deal with a lot of new stuff.

And that means unknowns.

Furthermore, there are producers on one side of the consumer-safety spectrum, and regulators on another.

Those two groups of people may not often see eye-to-eye.

Unfortunately, it looks like the producers are winning for now.

Because as it stands, many of the things we use on a daily basis are made with chemicals that have not been tested with human exposure in mind.

The Water Bottle Story Did Not End With BPA:

That’s where the current research picks up.

Because it turns out there is a lot more to plastic bottles than BPA.

Anyone who grew up in the 90s or earlier would know this, because they have survived the ultimate test of human endurance.

-Drinking out of a garden hose on a hot summer day.

On that same theme, Danish chemists decided to run some tests and see if the water that comes out of plastic bottles is 100% water,

And if not, to see if BPA was the only other thing in it.

Many Weird & Unknown Chemicals Get Into The Water:

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

The water was not 100% water, and there was more than just BPA in it.

The researchers left plain old Danish tap water in the bottles for 24 hours and then tested it.

After that time alone, there were -hundreds- of different substances found in the water.

Several of them were potential health hazards.

Many others were substances they’d never seen in plastics before.

The Dishwasher Only Makes Things Get Worse. -Also Faster:

Hold onto your britches, because if you’re a dishwasher fanatic, you’re going to want to hear this.

After a dishwasher cycle, there were several -thousand- different substances in the water.

Upwards of about 3500.

And as you might have guessed it from the statement about chemicals in consumer products before.

A huge percentage of all the substances are both unknown and untested.

Even for the chemicals they could identify, Christensen and Tisler said the toxicity of about 70% of them is completely unknown.

So far, out of the substances they could ferret-out in the water, they found:
1) Chemicals that create toxic free-radicals when exposed to light.
2) Endocrine/Hormone Disruptors
3) Carcinogens
4) Antioxidants (that may not be helpful)
5) Plastic Softeners
6) Release Agents
7) The active chemical in bug spray (DEET)

Even Rinsing Things Out Doesn’t Help Degraded Plastic:

Even after rinsing out most of the dishwasher compounds with fresh water after the cycle,

A lot of the ones from the plastic material still stuck around.

Because, whether new or used, a dish-washing cycle seems to be really hard on plastic bottles,

And significantly wears them down, possibly creating unforeseen byproducts in the process.

For the newest bottles they ran through the dishwasher, 500 different chemicals were still present in the water,

Even after they rinsed them out with fresh water after the cycle.

Many Unknowns & Loose Regulations Could Cost Us All:

Now there are still a lot of unknowns.

The UC biochemists don’t know what all the chemicals are, they don’t know their concentrations in the water,

And they don’t know how toxic all of that is to humans for the length of time they’d be drinking water from these bottles.

But since they don’t know, it’s probably a better idea to play it safe.

-Even if you do rinse out the dishwasher residues.

Because, of the chemicals that stick around, many of them could even be unforseen byproducts of manufacturing or aging of the material.

And if the chemicals introduced during production are barely tested for safety, the byproducts are even less so.

Until regulations get tighter on materials that come into contact with food or drink,

BPA and single-use items may be the least of your worries if you drink out of plastic.

References & Links:

• Source(s): U.Copenhagen
• More Coverage: Swiss Crafts Glass Bottles on Amazon
• Source Study: AnnIntMed, J.HazMat – Non-target screening for the identification of migrating compounds from reusable plastic bottles into drinking water