Rumor Reusing plastic bottles can cause cancer
Can you really get sick by reusing disposable plastic bottles, or is the link to cancer too flimsy to stand up to modern science?
Chemicals are ubiquitous in our daily life. And one place where they seem to make us most anxious is in plastic bottles, which often hold the liquids we drink every day.
The question of whether those disposable plastic bottles when reused can cause cancer, however, has been mostly answered. Time and time again, some urban legend will pop up claiming that chemicals in the plastic, when reused, are responsible for the spread of certain kinds of disease. And time and time again, those claims disintegrate upon further examination. But the reason these legends persist is that not all of them can be proved wrong.
Not long ago, the controversial chemical BPA was banned from baby bottles and sippy cups over concerns that it could interfere with a child’s nervous and reproductive systems. But BPA is the exception.
However, there is a claim that researchers say hasn’t gotten enough attention: whether heating up a plastic bottle will cause it to contaminate food or water. It says more research needs to be done to determine if there’s any danger.
