Daily Doom & Gloom
I'm going to start a new blog on my site. It's called "Daily Doom and Gloom" and I think you'll enjoy it. It's called "Daily" but we'll see how long that sticks. It seems like almost every day I hear about new things that can either harm or kill me. Stuff you and I use everyday, have been told is safe to use or safe to do, yet somehow turn out bad for us. Everyday there's something new you and I should fear and loathe so here it goes!
Your Daily Doom and Gloom for April 11th, 2008:
PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!
That's right, that bottled water you drank at work today is not only killing you, but it's making you depressed.....as if your boring life and dreary job wasn't enough right? Our friends over at Daily Mail UK have the scoop....
The poison lurking in your plastic water bottle
By JO KNOWSLEY via Daily Mail UK
A Potentially deadly toxin is being absorbed into bottled mineral water from their plastic containers. And the longer the water is stored, the levels of poison increase, research reveals. As the sell-by date on many bottled waters is up to two years, scientists have now called for extensive further studies.
The research by world expert Dr William Shotyk - who has vowed never to drink bottled water again - will be published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal next month. It is sure to revive concerns about the safety of bottled water, the world's fastest-growing drinks industry, worth £1.2billion a year.
The tests found traces of antimony, a chemical used in the making of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, used by most mineral-water sellers.
Small doses of antimony can make you feel ill and depressed. Larger quantities can cause violent vomiting and even death. The study stressed that amounts of antimony were well below official recommended levels. But it also discovered that the levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months.
Professor Shotyk, of Heidelberg University in Germany, said: "I don't want to shock people but here's what I know: Antimony is being continuously released into bottled drinking water. The water in PET bottles is contaminated."
He tested ground water and 15 types of bottled mineral water in his native Canada. The ground water contained two parts per trillion (ppt) of antimony. Bottled water had an average 160 ppt of antimony when opened immediately after bottling. But ground water stored in a PET plastic bottle had 630 ppt of antimony when opened six months later.
Professor Shotyk then tried the experiment in Europe, collecting 48 brands of water in PET bottles and water from its source in the ground at a German bottling plant. The water had four ppt of antimony before being bottled, the contents of a new bottle had 360 ppt and one opened three months later had a staggering 700 ppt.
Antimony finds its way into water by 'leaching' from the plastic in the same way that water absorbs flavour from a teabag. Health authorities said even the higher levels of antimony found are way below official safety guidelines, set at around six parts per billion by international environment agencies.
Elizabeth Griswold, director of the Canadian Bottled Water Association, added: "The levels do not pose a risk to humans. They are simply trace elements."
But David Coggan, a Southampton University-based epidemiologist who works with the Medical Research Council, called for further research into the findings.
He said not enough was known about the effects of antimony and how much had to be consumed before it became dangerous. Last year naphthalene, which can cause liver damage in high doses, was found in two bottles of Volvic mineral water. Bacteria which could leach into bottled water has been cited as a possible reason for rising levels of food poisoning.
So let me get this straight.....plastic from bottled water bottles can make me depressed and ill? Here I was thinking it was my job and pay check to paycheck lifestyle.
Your Daily Doom and Gloom for April 11th, 2008:
PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!
That's right, that bottled water you drank at work today is not only killing you, but it's making you depressed.....as if your boring life and dreary job wasn't enough right? Our friends over at Daily Mail UK have the scoop....
The poison lurking in your plastic water bottle
By JO KNOWSLEY via Daily Mail UK
A Potentially deadly toxin is being absorbed into bottled mineral water from their plastic containers. And the longer the water is stored, the levels of poison increase, research reveals. As the sell-by date on many bottled waters is up to two years, scientists have now called for extensive further studies.
The research by world expert Dr William Shotyk - who has vowed never to drink bottled water again - will be published in the Royal Society of Chemistry's journal next month. It is sure to revive concerns about the safety of bottled water, the world's fastest-growing drinks industry, worth £1.2billion a year.
The tests found traces of antimony, a chemical used in the making of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, used by most mineral-water sellers.
Small doses of antimony can make you feel ill and depressed. Larger quantities can cause violent vomiting and even death. The study stressed that amounts of antimony were well below official recommended levels. But it also discovered that the levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months.
Professor Shotyk, of Heidelberg University in Germany, said: "I don't want to shock people but here's what I know: Antimony is being continuously released into bottled drinking water. The water in PET bottles is contaminated."
He tested ground water and 15 types of bottled mineral water in his native Canada. The ground water contained two parts per trillion (ppt) of antimony. Bottled water had an average 160 ppt of antimony when opened immediately after bottling. But ground water stored in a PET plastic bottle had 630 ppt of antimony when opened six months later.
Professor Shotyk then tried the experiment in Europe, collecting 48 brands of water in PET bottles and water from its source in the ground at a German bottling plant. The water had four ppt of antimony before being bottled, the contents of a new bottle had 360 ppt and one opened three months later had a staggering 700 ppt.
Antimony finds its way into water by 'leaching' from the plastic in the same way that water absorbs flavour from a teabag. Health authorities said even the higher levels of antimony found are way below official safety guidelines, set at around six parts per billion by international environment agencies.
Elizabeth Griswold, director of the Canadian Bottled Water Association, added: "The levels do not pose a risk to humans. They are simply trace elements."
But David Coggan, a Southampton University-based epidemiologist who works with the Medical Research Council, called for further research into the findings.
He said not enough was known about the effects of antimony and how much had to be consumed before it became dangerous. Last year naphthalene, which can cause liver damage in high doses, was found in two bottles of Volvic mineral water. Bacteria which could leach into bottled water has been cited as a possible reason for rising levels of food poisoning.
So let me get this straight.....plastic from bottled water bottles can make me depressed and ill? Here I was thinking it was my job and pay check to paycheck lifestyle.
posted by Chris at
4:56 PM
2 Comments:
Who gives out diplomas for "world experts"? Who decides?
The fellow that old newspaper article quoted is a geochemist, i.e. someone who specializes in measuring the amount of trace elements in soil. He is NOT a physician or a toxicologist, so he is not an expert on the health effects of what he measures.
Incidentally, in later work he measured the lead that migrates from glass bottles into bottled water. The amount of lead he found coming out of glass is similar to the amount of antimony that came out of the PET.
"Oh", you say, "then that shows that bottled water is evil."
If you think that, then maybe you should consider all the beverages you drink out of glasses, all the jam and pickles you consume from glass jars, etc. 'Cause they all must have the lead leaching into food and beverages too.
Or maybe, just maybe, its all just a "storm in a water glass" about very small amounts.
And here I thought you were going to post the article about Nalgene bottles leeching a chemicals from their plastic that increases the estrogen in your body. Turns out man boobs are caused by water.
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