Urban Legend – United States

WARN ALL WOMEN
Bottled water in your car…..very dangerous, woman!!!!
This is how Sheryl Crow got breast cancer. She was on the Ellen show and
said this same exact thing. This has been identified as the most common
cause of the high levels in breast cancer, especially in Australia.

A friend whose mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The Doctor
told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

The doctor said that the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain
chemicals that can lead to breast cancer. So please be careful and do not
drink bottled water that has been left in a car, and, pass this on to all
the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know and be
aware and just might save us!!!! The heat causes toxins from the plastic to
leak into the water and they have found these toxins in breast tissue. Use
a stainless steel Canteen or a glass bottle when you can!!!

Let every one that has a wife/girlfriend and daughter know please.

Karen sent this message to me via email.  It was forwarded to her on the social networking site Myspace by several of her friends.  The message was titled “Warn all Women” and people who got it were asked to send it to every woman in their lives to protect them from possibly getting cancer.

The urban legend reference site Snopes.com has a few variations of the email on their website.  It has apparently become so widely circulated that it landed in the “Hottest 25 Legends” on the website.  The site contends that after all their research; they have come to the conclusion that the legend is false.  One version of the legend states that reusing water bottles will cause one to ingest carcinogenic compounds that seep into water.  Another states that the bottle releases these chemicals specifically when it is left in a car.  Some of the versions claim that a celebrity is responsible for the sudden public knowledge of the subject, while others claim that someone closely related to the individual visited a doctor who imparted the information upon them.  All of the versions that I read specify that the cancer in question is breast cancer.  One version went so far as to name the specific carcinogen, diethylhydroxylamine, which is produced.  A Google search of this chemical confirms that it is used in plastics, but there was no mention of carcinogenic properties.  It is also not the chemical used in the plastic from which water bottles are made.  That chemical is diethylhexyl adipate, which has been proven not to be carcinogenic in humans.

Annotation: “Bottle Royal.” Snopes. 25 June 2007. 15 Feb. 2008 http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/petbottles.asp.

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