PET Plastic Maybe Not Safe to Drink

December 16, 2010

by Sarah (Steve) Mosko, PhD

Appeared in:

  • E-Magazine this Week as Put Down That Bottle, 09 Oct 2012
  • Vall-E-Vents Sierra Club Newsletter, Apr 2011
  • Fullerton Observer, Jan 2011, p. 10
  • Santa Monica Daily Press as Plastic Poses Problems, 22 Dec 2010
  • Surf City Voice, 16 Dec 2010

The simple fact that Americans consume 1500 single-serve water bottles per second made of PET plastic has sufficed to make these disposable bottles a target of environmentalists concerned about the impact of so much trash. Until very recently, however, it has been assumed that the PET bottles pose no direct health risk to humans who drink from them.

New evidence that PET drink bottles can leach substances into the contents that mimic the sex hormone estrogen – phthalates and antimony – has put PET bottles in the crosshairs also of scientists worried about their health safety.

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