How many times have you entered the gym and felt like…mmm I’m forgetting something. How many times have you walked into work and felt like…mmm there’s something missing. In both situations you realize that you had left your water bottle in the back seat of your car.

Also, in both situations you decided not to head back to grab the bottle. Once you get back in the car, you grab the bottle to get a quick taste of what you left behind. As you are drinking you realize the water is quite warm if not even hot. You put the bottle down and you begin thinking about all the negative stories of hot plastic bottles. Now believing the water is contaminated you dump the water thinking that’s the best solution.

Did you really need to toss that water?

Well there was a study done by University of Florida soil and water professor Lena Ma who took 16 different brands of water and heated them to 158 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 weeks. Even though the study was placed under extreme conditions the results would probably surprise you.

Only one bottle produced measurements that would exceed environmental protection agency standard for BPA and those standards are set fairly high. BPA leaching is believed to increase estrogen which could increase the chances of breast cancer.

The leaching in this situation is not going to be impactful to your health unless you do it every day for a long time. The head researcher still said more research is needed to make sure the results are the same for every brand.

Sheryl crow once said that she believes that her cancer came from drinking a hot water bottle that was left in her car. I know she was not the myth starter but people in high positions can perpetuate such thoughts making many to believe unscientific facts.

So in the meantime if you come across a hot water bottle you might want to think twice about giving it a toss.

-Phil