New Toxin Discovered in Bottled Alkaline Water
Bottled water drinkers have something new to worry about besides BPA poisoning and the environmental devastation caused by bottled water: Antimony poisoning. Antimony is a heavy metal linked to lung, heart, and gastrointestinal disorders. Drinkers of bottled alkaline water have it worse: The calcium in bottled alkaline water increases the release of antimony from plastic bottles.
Inside a Hot Car: The Worst Case Scenario
Leaving bottled water of any kind inside a parked car is a terrible idea. The release of both antimony and BPA increase as the temperature goes up. Temperatures inside of a car on a sunny day can easily reach 150 degrees fahrenheit. At that temperature, antimony levels found in bottled water can be 319 times higher than if that same bottle of water was kept in the fridge.
What about inside of a delivery truck? Even if you keep bottled water that you buy chilled, you may still be exposed to unsafe levels of BPA and antimony because the temperature inside of the truck that delivered that bottled water to the store isn’t regulated. It can easily get as hot inside of a delivery truck as it does inside a car. This means that even if you’re careful to not expose bottled water that you bought to heat, the damage may already have been done by the truck that delivered it to the store!
(Still) Dangerous at Room Temperature
Even when stored at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, BPA and antimony still leech from the plastic in bottles. If stored long enough, those levels can even reach the levels you’d find if you left your bottled water inside a car. For that reason, it’s a good idea to consider bottled water to be unsafe at any temperature.
How much antimony does it take to affect health?
The maximum level of antimony allowed in tap water is 6 parts per billion, there is no maximum level set by the EPA for antimony in bottled water. However, even at 4 parts per billion, health effects have been reported in children. In testing, the worst plastic bottles released about 2.4 parts per billion of antimony into water when exposed to heat.
Long Term Effects of Antimony Exposure haven’t been studied
The problem is that the effects of drinking even small quantities of antimony-contaminated water long term – over a course of weeks and months – has never been studied. Antimony is a heavy metal, which could build up in your system if you drink bottled water with antimony in it on a regular basis. The harm caused by antimony is cumulative – it builds up over time.
Child Safety Tip: Don’t allow children to drink from plastic bottles because children are more sensitive to antimony poisoning than adults are.
The only way to protect yourself from antimony
If you’re concerned about antimony in plastic bottles, the only sure-fire way to avoid it is to make your water at home, and keep it in your own bottles. Even if you have to use plastic bottles to keep it in, you can protect yourself by keeping the bottles cold. This is especially true for any mineral water including alkaline water. The main problem with plastic bottles is that they release BPA and antimony when warm or hot. If you keep a plastic bottle cold, it significantly reduces the chance that the bottle will contaminate the water inside of it.
There are alternatives to plastic bottles, you can use glass or stainless steel bottles. Either is going to be safer than plastic. Life Ionizers has glass bottles, and the Water for Life stainless steel water bottle that preserves the freshness and potency of ionized alkaline water 300% longer than other bottles.
Protect yourself and the planet from plastic bottles. Call us today at 888 790-8121 for the latest money saving special offers on Life water ionizers.
Tedesco, Laura. “Why You Shouldn’t Drink Warm Bottled Water.” Why You Shouldn’t Drink
Warm Bottled Water. Yahoo Health, 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <https://www.yahoo.com/health/why-you-shouldnt-drink-warm-bottled-water-98234856882.html>.