Bottled water contains over 24,000 chemicals

by Stepy — March 26, 2016

According to a German study, bottled water contains over 24,000 chemicals.

Bottled water has been the subject of much controversy lately. These bottles contain chemicals like BPA, which have shown detrimental health effects. Studies have also shown that they contain chemicals called phthalates, which are known to disrupt hormones like testosterone.

The chemicals in bottled water and other bottled beverages are leeched into the liquid. Amongst these chemicals is the endocrine-disrupting chemical, also known as di(2-ethylhexyl) fumarate, or DEHF. This chemical is unregulated.

The research team conducted tests on 18 different bottled water brands to look for endrocrine-disrupting chemicals. They found that there were 24,250 different types of chemicals present in the different bottled water brands.

The researchers found that bottled water in indeed filled with many dangerous chemicals that could disrupt the body’s hormonal system, mess with estrogen activity, and disrupt androgen receptors as well.

The study authors concluded:

We have shown that antiestrogens and antiandrogens are present in the majority of bottled water products. To identify the causative chemical, we applied a novel correlation approach to integrate biological and high-resolution mass spectrometry data. Structural elucidation led to dioctyl maleate/fumarate isomers as promising candidates. While chemical analysis confirmed that DEHF is the putative steroid receptor antagonist, this compound was weakly antiestrogenic in the bioassays, only. We conclude that we have either missed active compound(s) or that another; untested maleate/fumarate isomer causes the antagonistic activity in bottled water. Two arguments support the latter: In addition to DEHF other isomers were antiestrogenic and antiandrogenic. Moreover, maleates are structurally highly similar to phthalate plasticizers, well-known antiandrogens. Therefore, we pose the hypothesis that dialkyl maleates and fumarates might represent a novel group of steroid receptor antagonists. This illustrates that in spite of the potentially relevant exposure and obvious resemblance to other EDCs such chemicals have been so far disregarded by the scientific and regulatory community. Therefore, we hope that our findings will give fresh impetus to the effect-directed identification of EDCs in beverages, foodstuff, and consumer products which, in the end, will help providing a more holistic picture of human exposure to EDCs.

According to the NRDC, bottled water is greatly hurting the environment. In New York City alone, the transportation of bottled water from Europe caused about 3,800 tons of climate changing pollution in the year 2006. Because consumers do not always recycle bottled water, they end up clogging landfills instead.

The study showing that bottled water contains over 24,000 chemicals was published in the journal Plos One.

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