We have all seen it by now either via email from a friend
or family member or in a posting on Facebook or Twitter alluding to the dangers
that bottle water poses especially if frozen or left in a hot car. Like everything we see on the internet it
must be true, or is it?
First off these rumors are stacked like an answer in
Boulderdash. Ever play that game? You are given a word and you have to provide
the definition for the word. For each person who votes for your answer you move
up the game board and whoever gets to the top first wins.
Example: Acalculia
My Definition:
hormone that triggers the fall of autumn leaves in trees
Actual Definition:
inability to work with numbers
Get the idea. The
object is to sound authoritarian even if you have no idea what you are talking
about. So we read something impressive
like, “The plastic in these bottles called polyethylene terephthalate or PET
contains a carcinogen called diethyl hydroxylamine or DEHA.” Now that sounds scary and it is followed by a
warning, “This cancer causing chemical can leach into the water you are
drinking especially when extreme heat or cold is applied.” Indeed we are warned
that DEHA is so dangerous it can leach into your water simply by you reusing
the bottle.
Let’s apply a little common sense to the above implied
situation. Anyone who has ever worked in
a warehouse or shipping environment can tell you that your bottled water,
whether its Kroger brand or Fiji in the square bottle, is exposed to heat and
cold many times before it even hits the store shelf. It’s shipped in train cars and big trailers
that I can assure you are in no way temperature controlled. It’s stored in warehouses that are always hot
in the summer and cold in the winter.
That means that if it were true you are drinking poison from the moment
you crack the top on that bottle you just pulled out of your refrigerator.
What We Know
The American Cancer Society has stated that DEHA is not
found in the plastic used to make PET bottles.
The Environmental Protection Agency states that DEHA
“cannot reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer…or other serious irreversible
chronic health effects.”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer put out a
statement explaining that diethylhexyl adipate “is not classifiable as to it
carcinogenicity to humans.”
The American Chemical Council stated that “There is
simply on scientific basis to support the claim that PET bottles will release
dioxin (DEHA) when frozen,” and that dioxins “can only be formed at
temperatures well above 700 degrees Fahrenheit; they cannot be formed at room
temperature or in freezing temperatures.”
Lastly don’t take my word for it take the word of John
Hopkins researcher Dr. Rolf Halden who said about the PET bottle controversy,
“This is an urban legend. There are no
dioxins in plastics” and of the freezing myth that “freezing actually works
against the release of chemicals,” since “chemicals do not diffuse as readily
in cold temperatures.”
In Conclusion
I decided to tackle this health issue since it has popped
up multiple times amongst friends I have on Facebook and among family. Common sense and a little science go a long
way in taking the scary out of something completely made up. Bottom line, don’t be afraid of bottled water
in the freezer or in the car.
Daily Recap:
Matt: 33 minute Jog
Kelly: 30 minutes treadmill at the gym
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