Can drinking bottled water left in a warm car cause breast cancer?  A reader of the prestigious journal Nature inquired about an email circulating the Internet that makes this claim. Is it spam?

Vicky Heath, editor of Nature’s Endocrinology Review, responded. Perhaps it’s not spam, she said. We need to be aware of the danger. She is calling for the plastics industry to act much more responsibly than it has.

In an editorial dated May, 2010, Health reviewed the dangers of BPA, a synthetic estrogen found in plastic bottles and tin can liners. “BPA and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been implicated in obesity, neurological deficits, reproductive dysfunction and cancer. In addition, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)—common household chemicals found in ‘nonstick’ and waterproof materials—have recently been linked to thyroid disease.”  She also said:

“BPA is just the tip of the iceberg. The plastics industry has a responsibility to ensure that its products are safe; companies should, therefore, be mandated to fund independent epidemiological and mechanistic research into the potential risks that industrial chemicals pose to the endocrine system. Furthermore, the FDA and its international counterparts should prioritize such research; at a global level, even a small risk could have a considerable impact on the health of millions of people.”

Meanwhile, the FDA is making us wait another 1 1/2 to 2 years for more research on this question, although there is plenty of research already showing that BPA is dangerous for all of us, but especially to infants and pregnant women. Be sure to protect your family by using a home water filtration system instead of bottled water.