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Freezing Plastic Water Bottles


Updated July 25, 2006

Question: Freezing Plastic Water Bottles
I got an email saying freezing plastic water bottles can cause cancer. I normally freeze them to drink throughout my workday as it melts. Is this true? Can freezing plastic water bottles cause cancer?
Answer: Recently, I received the same email warning that freezing water in plastic water bottles could expose consumers to dioxins, a manmade compound which can cause a variety of health problems, even cancer. The email gave credit to the findings to Johns Hopkins University.

After further research, I found the email to be a hoax.


Dr. Haden dispelled the myth saying "This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, freezing actually works against the release of chemicals."

The bottom line is that there is no cancer risk in drinking water from frozen water bottles.
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