Drinking from plastic water bottles can give you cancer because of the chemicals in the plastic

Question

This claim has been shared widely in social media posts and online articles, suggesting that plastic bottles leach dangerous chemicals like BPA into the water, which can then cause cancer. One viral post stated: “Every time you drink from a plastic bottle, you’re ingesting cancer-causing toxins.”

Answer 1

Strangely, it appears that the ACS moved or deleted the linked article, but we can still investigate the claim. 
As far as I can tell, there are two main concerns about plastics in water bottles: the kind of plastic used and the size of particles it can break down into. 

Though an article published by the NIH states that, on average, a liter of bottled water included about 240,000 tiny pieces of plastic, and that about 90% of these plastic fragments were nanoplastics (<1 μm in size), they noted that "the potential health effects of these tiny plastic bits are still unproven and unknown". 

However, a particular plastic called bisphenol A (BPA) was identified in this article by the BBC as a potential concern, though it concludes that "At present, there is no strong, conclusive evidence that at the everyday concentrations we may be exposed to, BPA can cause harm." Statements by regulatory bodies like the FDA and EPA also support this. 

This is countered by another study published by a group of researchers from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education in Karnataka, India that suggested that BPA exposure—even at low doses—is linked to serious health risks including hormonal disruption, increased risk of several cancers (like breast, prostate, and ovarian), interference with cancer treatment, and epigenetic changes that may promote tumor development. 

In conclusion, the claim "drinking water from plastic bottles gives you cancer" is too broad to make and needs context. While it's true that BPA (a plastic linked to cancer risk at low doses) may be harmful, it is not used in all water bottles and is typically not found in disposable water bottles, which are usually made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Further, the FDA and EPA maintain that current exposure levels are below any level of concern. 

Comments

This is a nice well rounded answer but there is even more to unpack here. Manufacturers also have BPA substitutes which are potentially more harmful than BPA itself, BPS and BPF. The long term effects are inconclusive and more study needs to be performed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25775505/

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Thanks, this is some nice additional context!

Answer 2

This claim is not true. According to Cancer Council, "It’s safe to drink water out of plastic bottles without a risk of cancer even when the bottle has been left in hot cars, frozen or reused. There is no scientific evidence to dispute this." A common concern involves a chemical called BPA (bisphenol A), which was once used in some plastics. However, it has been confirmed from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) that there is no harm in drinking water from plastic bottles.

Comments

While there seems to be apparently no studies that show a direct link between water bottle usage and cancer, a lot more studies need to be performed on indirect links between for example microplastics and inflammation and the potential impact of bioaccumulated plastics and their decay in our bodies over time. Here is a science paper that talks about how difficult it is to even detect the microplastics let alone track their decay over time and the chemicals released from that decay and the potential health effects. So this is ultimately inconclusive, not false nor true. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2300582121  There is however statistical risk and more usage of lower quality plastic bottles increases risk.

Answer 3

The original article on cancer.org has been removed and/or the link is dead. However there are many other articles with similar claims tying plastic bottle usage to cancer. Here is another similar article. https://www.breastcancer.org/risk/risk-factors/exposure-to-chemicals-in-plastic

This one appears to be more balanced and nuanced approach to the claim by detailing some of the differences in plastics and educating readers on how to identify these differences, with the conclusion that yes plastic bottles may leach chemicals that may be harmful to health in a way that may exacerbate or cause cancer ...but it greatly depends on the type of plastic, the quality of the plastic and the context of how it is used/misused.