Urban legend No. 2. Reusing PET jars causes you cancer!!!

At work, I have been consistently using a pet bottle (a bottle of Kinley product of Coca cola) that I smuggled in from India, for the past 6 months for ferry water from the water dispenser. Over time it has scrunched up and developed grooves all over it body, greatly reducing its capacity for water storage and is an eye sore on my desk (I have been known to douse a little hot water into the bottle now and then to ease my ailing throat).

Nevertheless, I have been using it for my everyday use just so that I may inadvertently contribute to minimize the ailing waste problem.

I have received repeated warnings from fellow workers on the leaching of toxics into my water intake every day, due to my constant abuse (of the bottle) and also because of the prolonged usage.

So, I go digging on Google and found that it has been posted as a urban legend or hoax on a number of websites.

Granted that in 2001, a student from University of Idaho concluded that repeated use of PET plastic bottles releases di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) which evidently is a carcinogen. Even EPA seems to have taken a bout against the all damning DEHA but later conceded to a less political stand.

Following the student’s master’s thesis, the media seemed to have attacked the Bottling association for PET bottle usage. However, later studies seems to have nullified this qualm .

Here are few relevant links:

An interesting take on the plastic bottle use and its likely carcinogenic affect.

FAQs: The Safety of Plastic Beverage Bottles from plasticsinfo.org

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Plastic Wraps