Does Bottled Water Left in Cars Cause Breast Cancer?

I have just received the following forwarded email from my neighbour Sum Chee Nung and later found from the internet that it could be a chain mail carrying a myth of health. In any case, I still think as a precaution it's wise (for men and women alike) to refrain from keeping bottled water in the car and drinking it.

Bottled water in your car is very dangerous to women.
放在汽車裡的瓶裝水對女性是非常危險的事情!!!
This is how Sheryl Crow got breast cancer. She was on the Ellen show and said this same exact thing. This has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels in breast cancer, especially in Australia.
這就是謝莉‧克羅得乳腺癌的原因。 她在上艾倫的節目裡提到這是千真萬確的事情。這已經被鑑定是罹患乳腺癌裡的高危險因素中最常見的原因了，尤其是在澳洲地區。

A friend’s mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The Doctor told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.
有位朋友的母親最近才被診斷出乳腺癌。 醫生告訴她︰婦女實在不應該喝留放在汽車裡的瓶裝水。

The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car and pass this on to all the women relatives and friends you care about in your life.

This information is the kind we need to know and be aware of and it just might save a life.
這醫生還說熱能和塑膠瓶子兩者遇在一起就會產生化學物質, 而那些將會導致人們罹患乳腺癌。因此請小心並且千萬不要喝留放在車子裡頭的瓶裝水. 請把這信息傳遞給你生命中的所有女性親友。這是一則或許可以拯救一個生命的訊息, 我們不只應該知道, 而且要多加小心.

The heat causes toxins from the plastic to leak into the water and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use a stainless steel or a glass bottle if you can!!!
熱能釋放出塑膠裡的有毒物質後, 這些物質就滲入到了水裡頭，而人們的胸部組織裡頭竟然就發現了這種毒素。所以如果可以的話，切記改用不鏽鋼杯或是玻璃瓶都好! !

MYTH BUSTERS:

First comments from Erika Lenkert: (http://blogs.glam.com/glamnest/2007/06/26/bottled-water-car-storage-cancer/)

After receiving multiple e-mail chains denouncing drinking water from a plastic bottle that’s been overheated in the car or frozen because the processes releases cancer-causing dioxins into the water, I started snooping around to see if there was any substance behind the statement.

Here’s what I discovered with a little web browsing:

According to a spokesperson from Johns Hopkins University, who dispels the rumor that the e-mail chain was based on information from his medical community:

* There is no connection between cancer-causing dioxins and bottled water because there are no dioxins in plastics.

* While heating plastic may not cause it to release dioxins, it can result in the release of other potentially harmful chemicals. This is not only true for plastic water bottles, but also plastics heated in the microwave, plastic baby bottles heated in water, and even pacifiers heated in a baby’s mouth. (If you’re a mom, do some research; there’s a lot of information out there about the safest choices.)

* Freezing plastic impedes the release of chemicals, which means the frozen water bottle myth is a lot of hooey.

* Bottled water is not regulated in the same way tap water is. Drinking tap may be safer for you, and it will cut down on your contribution to plastic waste.If you want to know more about why bottled water is neither cleaner nor greener than tap water, check out this article by Environmental Magazine. The site also has an astounding array of articles about stuff I obsess on all the time, like whether my lawn fertilizer is a biohazard to my baby, and environmentally PC parenting.

Second comment from David Emery:
(http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/a/bottled-water.htm)

Comments: False.

In the United States, plastic bottles of the type used for commercially sold water are regulated by the FDA as "food contact substances" and held to the same safety standards as food additives.

This means, among other things, that the FDA has reviewed test data on the safety of the plastics used in water bottles -- including the potential for hazardous chemicals leaching or "migrating" from the plastic into the water -- and established that they pose no significant risk to human health. The water itself is also tested and must meet basic quality standards similar to those set by the Environmental Protection Agency for public drinking water.

That is not to say that bottled water is absolutely free of contaminants, nor that chemical leaching never takes place. Studies done on water bottled in FDA-approved polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for example, did find trace amounts of potentially hazardous substances believed to have migrated from the plastic. The important point to take away, however, is that these amounts were miniscule and well within the safety limits set by FDA and EPA regulators.
According to Dr. Rolf Halden of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, consumers face a much greater risk from potential exposure to microbial contaminants in bottled water -- germs, to you and me -- than from chemical ones. For that reason, most experts suggest not refilling or reusing empty bottles.

It should also be noted that the plastics used in the manufacturer of reusable water bottles vary in composition and quality and may be more susceptible to chemical leaching.

Note on Sheryl Crow:

Another version of this message contains the additional claim that pop singer Sheryl Crow announced during a 2006 appearance on the Ellen Degeneres TV show that she got breast cancer as a result of drinking bottled water. While it is true that she discussed her bout with cancer on that show and, among other things, cautioned viewers against drinking water from heated plastic bottles, my understanding is that she did not directly attribute her own cancer to that cause. She issued a similar warning in a statement published on her website on September 1, 2006 but, again, did not specifically claim that bottled water was the cause of her own illness.