Can you get cancer from drinking bottled water left in your car?!
Can you get cancer from drinking bottled water left in your car?
Answers:
The issue here is that the carcinogenic chemicals locked up in the plastic can leach into your beverage. Excess heat and sunlight increase this effect. Toxic chemicals leaching from plastic into the food/beverage have been known for at least 20 years (i read it in Scientific American about a PhD researcher doing tests). That is why companies like Nalgene have made money selling "safe" plastic.
Currently we have (arguably) 50:50 chance of getting cancer in our lives. You need to ask the question are you ok with the risk. The issue is that our modern lives are full of carcinogens. Hence the high cancer rate. It is hard to eliminate all of them. Some folks smoke, drink, eat junk and work in a nuclear plant and are happy. Some folks are genetically pre-disposed to get cancer. You need to make a life style decision on how much work you want to do to assess the risk and take action.
As a general rule things that humans evolved to live with are safe e.g. air/sand/water/trees. Things that our bodies have not evolved to live with are toxic e.g. Plutonium, PCBs, etc. If there is a lot of cancer deaths in the family then there might be some genetic factors.