Dear Dr. Laule,

I have a question about the storage of water.  J. told me that you have done experiments with water that had been sitting in the sun in plastic containers.  I think I remember that she said that cancer cells were found in this water.  I just wanted to ask for your opinion on this matter as emails have been going around concerning the storage of water in plastic.  (Don't freeze, don't heat anything in plastic). 

Thank you and I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

B.F.

Dear B.F,

Here's the story on water stored in plastic containers :

Plastic contains "plasticizers" which are biochemically related to estrogen. When a plastic bottle (the softer the plastic the worse) is exposed to ultraviolet light the plasticizers are leached into the water. These so-called "xeno-estrogens" are potent activators of estro-gen receptor positive breast cancer, when such xeno-estrogens are taken into the body. So for instance, if you drink water that has been stored in plastic and been in sunlight or fluroescent light, you are also getting a dose of xeno-estrogens. If by chance you have a hormone sensitive cancer in your body (prostate cancer is also sensitive to estrogen), there is a chance that the cancer will be activated. There are questions about young children of either gender being exposed to high doses of estrogens like this as well.

Dr. Theo Coburn, a wildlife biologist, has discovered that these xeno-estrogens from plastic are disrupting the reproductive cycles of many animals in the wild. A laboratory in California which maintains the cell cultures of certain lines of breast cancers were astonished to find that when they started mixing their nutrient broth in plastic Ehrlenmeyer flasks, the growth rate of the cancer cell cultures accelerated considerably. Prior to that, they had always mixed the nutrient broth in glass containers. Presumably the accelerated growth of the cancer cells was due to xeno-estrogens from the plastic flasks.

This is important information for health. It seems wise to store water in very hard plastic, in the dark, if not possible to store it in glass. I personally carry water with me in glass, and when that is not practical, keep my plastic bottle in the dark.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Sincerely,

Alice R. Laule, M.D.