Chemical compounds and toxicological assessments of drinking water stored in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles: A source of controversy reviewed

Abstract

A declaration of conformity according to European regulation No. 10/2011 is required to ensure the safety of plastic materials in contact with foodstuffs. This regulation established a positive list of substances that are authorized for use in plastic materials. Some compounds are subject to restrictions and/or specifications according to their toxicological data. Despite this, the analysis of PET reveals some non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) produced by authorized initial reactants and additives. Genotoxic and estrogenic activities in PET-bottled water have been reported. Chemical mixtures in bottled water have been suggested as the source of these toxicological effects. Furthermore, sample preparation techniques, such as solid-phase extraction (SPE), to extract estrogen-like compounds in bottled water are controversial. It has been suggested that inappropriate extraction methods and sample treatment may result in false-negative or positive responses when testing water extracts in bioassays. There is therefore a need to combine chemical analysis with bioassays to carry out hazard assessments. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and antimony are clearly related to migration from PET into water. However, several studies have shown other theoretically unexpected substances in bottled water. The origin of these compounds has not been clearly established (PET container, cap-sealing resins, background contamination, water processing steps, NIAS, recycled PET, etc.). Here, we surveyed toxicological studies on PET-bottled water and chemical compounds that may be present therein. Our literature review shows that contradictory results for PET-bottled water have been reported, and differences can be explained by the wide variety of analytical methods, bioassays and exposure conditions employed.

Mobility of antimony, arsenic and lead at a former antimony mine, Glendinning, Scotland

“…from 55 kt in 1990 to 180 kt in 2012 (Butterman and Carlin, 2004;USGS, 2013), is largely attributable to its use in flame retardants, car brake liner lubricants, catalysts for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and alloy additives (Filella et al, 2002a;Ceriotti and Amarasiriwardena, 2009;Bach et al, 2012;USGS, 2013). Currently, ~84% of global Sb production takes place in China (He et al, 2012) and, although some large-scale mines have recently closed (USGS, 2013), many are operational, e.g.…”

Study on the leaching of phthalates from polyethylene terephthalate bottles into mineral water

“…10/2011 as of 14 January 2011 does not authorize the use of phthalates for manufacturing food-contact materials, phthalates have been detected in PET material and in PET-bottled water. There are several possibilities for the occurrence of phthalates in bottled water such as: (i) quality of the raw material as well as the technology used in bottle production (Amiridou and Voutsa, 2011;Schmid et al, 2008) or perhaps chemicals used in the production process (Plotan et al, 2012, Wu et al, 2012); (ii) use of recycled PET (Bach et al, 2012); (iii) contamination of the water sources with decomposed plastic wastes of dumps (Baram et al, 2000); (iv) cross-contamination in the bottling factory as phthalates are ubiquitous in the environment (Biscardi et al, 2003;Higuchi et al, 2004;Leivadara et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2008); (v) cap sealing resins (Hirayama et al, 2001) may present contamination.…”

Screening of Polymer Additives in Drinking Water Stored in PET Bottles by UHPLC-ESI-IT-TOF MS

“…Both quantification and identification are difficult tasks because there are a wide variety of different additives, usually mixtures of additives are used, and the amount added is often low and can be further decreased due to degradation. That is the case when analysing the polymer additives in the polymer itself [3]. The identification of polymer additives inside the water that has a polymer package is even more difficult.…”

“…10/2011 [2] covers food-contact plastic materials. It states that food-contact materials should not transfer its ingredients to food in quantities that could incur a human health risk, cause an unacceptable change in the composition of the food or bring about deterioration in the food organoleptic characteristics [3,4].…”