Hot Water Leaches Harmful Chemical From Plastic

Study finds plastic bottles leach chemical BPA in hot water
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 30, 2008 9:55 AM CST
Hot Water Leaches Harmful Chemical From Plastic
The study took some reusable plastic water bottles and simulated what they'd go through in an average week. The researchers found that when they were in boiling water, such as in a dishwasher, the plastic bottles released the chemical BPA up to 55 times faster.   ((c) Editor B)

Hot liquid causes a potentially harmful chemical to leach out of certain plastics much faster than usual, researchers have found. The study, published in Toxicology Letters, discovered that  bisphenol A, or BPA, was released from some common plastic bottles 55 times faster when they were placed in boiling water. Concerns about BPA, a hormone "disrupter," have been growing, particularly for containers used by babies and young children.

Animal tests have shown that BPA can affect reproductive and brain development. Its effects on humans have not been conclusively studied, and the amounts released by plastics are tiny, but some experts warn it would be safer to make things like baby bottles out of another material. "Newborn babies are at a very sensitive stage of their development, and the last thing you want to be doing is dosing them with a very potent hormone disruptor," said one. (More plastic stories.)

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