This may be hard to swallow, but the drinking bottle that you are dutifully carrying around with you all day to stay properly hydrated may be delivering
more than water into your body. The most commonly used plastic water bottle is made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is indicated on the bottle with a stamp of the number 1 surrounded by arrows. This plastic is considered safe to use for water. But is it? While some chemical residues from the production process contaminate all plastic containers and can be released into the contained food or drink, PET plastic water bottles are relatively low in these chemical residues, making them relatively safe to use for water, if the bottle is used as intended. Most people don't know the environmental conditions for which their plastic bottle was made. Actually, these bottles are not intended to be exposed to sunlight, or be stored in a hot car. UV radiation from sunlight has the ability to break chemical bonds in plastics, including PET, and this causes the plastic to quickly decompose. According to an article in Plastics Today, "PET is sensitive to UV light especially at elevated temperatures, under high humidity, and in the presence of oxygen—all of which are present when PET bottles are exposed to the weather." This also happens when people keep their water bottle in their car, or beside them at the beach. According to an article in Recycle Magazine, "The data clearly shows that exposure to ultraviolet radiation was very damaging to the PET material…Exposure to UV radiation, whether it is from outside storage or possibly even exposure to fluorescent lighting in retail stores, should be considered as another contributor to PET quality degradation." In other words, sunlight and heat breakdown the plastic, producing a slew of chemicals. What's wrong with the chemicals from plastics breaking down? According to the Endocrine Society, "Plastics contain and leach hazardous chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that threaten human health…EDCs are chemicals that disturb the body's hormone systems and can cause cancer, diabetes, reproductive…