Office Watercoolers

All Articles

2012 Articles

2011 Articles

2010 Articles

2008 Articles

Welcome to the second part of Office Water Coolers two part info series on the facts about refilling plastic water bottles. Before we begin, I’d like to qualify that the bottles we’re talking about are not the reusable 18.9 ltr bottles designed for our water coolers but the small 500ml, 750ml or even 1 ltr water or soft drink bottles found in supermarkets and newsagents.

Almost all plastic bottles containing soft drinks, juices and mineral water in the UK are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is lightweight, shatterproof and can be recycled. The evidence suggests that PET plastics are certainly safer when compared to polycarbonate bottles, which can leach* a potentially harmful synthetic chemical called Bisphenol A which can interfere with the bodies hormonal messaging system. PVC plastics can leach phthalates but PVC is not really used for drink bottles, especially in the UK.

The problem of leaching of chemicals is an obvious concern but less so in PET which, if you’re drinking a bottle of mineral water of coca cola in the UK right now, is what it’s made of. Let’s look at the controversy surrounding PET and the potential leaching of a substance called DEHA. 

Many health advocates still advise against the reuse of bottles made from PET based on the potential leaching of DEHA. DEHA was once believed to be a carcinogenic substance but the truth is a lot more opaque. The fact that  it is neither regulated nor classified as a human carcinogen by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, the National Toxicology Program or the International Agency for Research on Cancer, says a lot about its so-called cancer causing effects. 

What’s more DEHA isn’t even inherent in PET it turns out. A common plasticizer in many other products it now seems likely that DEHA was cross contaminated with PET by the researchers during the original studies into these harmful effects. In June 2003 a Swiss study DEHA levels were not above the background levels in PET bottles from three different countries, concluding it was therefore unlikely to have migrated from the bottles.

At Office Water Coolers we use PET bottles, as is common practice in the plastic bottling industry in the UK and we take safety very seriously. There is no doubt as to the safety of PET but when it is being reused there is always a chance that chemical leeching may occur and contaminate the water. Personally I would always recommend the single use of water bottles despite there being very little danger in reusing them if you wash them regularly and discontinue usage after a short period. 

There is a lot more information on this out there but hopefully this guide has proved a helpful introduction.

Please note this info series and the preceding part, are intended as a rough guide to the facts only.

*Leaching is the escape of chemicals, known as plasticizers, from the plastic bottle into the water, often through tiny cracks and fissures which develop over time. It should be noted that exposing bottles to excessive heat or cold can dramatically speed up this process.

© 2012 Office Water Coolers

---

Recent Articles

An Improving Environmental Footprint for the Bottled Water Industry

Consider this; recycling a single large plastic bottle (made from PET) conserves enough energy to light a 60 watt bulb for 6 hours. The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) reported that in 2010 1.5 billion pounds of PET was recycled in America.  Recycled PET (rPET) can be made into all sorts of things like car parts, playground equipment, carpet or even clothing. Now consider this; in America (and I daresay the figures are not that dissimilar in the UK) plastic bottles ...
read more

Strong Performance for UK Bottled Water in 2011

Good news for the bottled water industry as it reports a 2.8% increase in sales in 2011 (1.8 billion litres). As an industry that employs two thousand people it is good news in these economically trying times as the UK officially enters a double dip recession. So with unemployment remaining high and when people are cutting back on so much, saving their pennies, why does the bottled water industry grow when compared to 2010. Well it seems there are a lot of other factors at play. UK households ...
read more

Venezuela’s President Announces Price Caps on Bottled Water

Flamboyant Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has started announcing more price caps as part of his government’s Law of Fair Prices, passed back in November 2011. The law was designed to limit what is seen as excessive profiteering on 19 household goods and groceries but is now being expanded as the government announce new prices for different products and it is starting with bottled water and deodorant. The books of over 16,000 companies have been examined by the Venezuelan government so far ...
read more

Polyethylene terephthalate

What is polyethylene terephthalate? Well chances are you’ve encountered it already today if you’ve swigged from a bottle of water or any of a whole range of bottled drinks. Abbreviated to PET, polyethylene terephthalate is probably most associated with the packaging for plastic bottles due to its properties as an excellent and durable barrier material. The thermoplastic polymer is part of the polyester family and can exist in both amorphous (transparent) and as a semicrystalline polymer which ...
read more