Possible estrogenic compounds from PET plastic

So I read another thread about a broken carboy, so I started looking into PET plastic again. I found a lot of websites that state PET is perfectly safe, I also found this site that says it is not.

PET bottles potential health hazard › News in Science (ABC Science)

But new evidence suggests that PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, may not be so benign after all.

Scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt found that estrogenic compounds leach from the plastic into the water.

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Are they full of it?

Depend on who you ask. European Plastics News

Personally, I wouldn't worry over it.

Based on my read, there is a high probability the researchers are attempting to make a name for themselves and/or funded by an environmentalist group (see quote below).

"This is coming at a good time because the use of bottles for consuming water is getting very bad press now because of its carbon footprint," she says. "It's just another nail in the coffin of bottled water, the way I see it."

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They found hormone-like compounds in seven of the nine PET bottles and three of the nine glass bottles. So, clearly, at least some of the hormones are already in the water. For example, treated waste water contains many worse things than hormones. It often contains things like minuscule levels blood pressure medication.

Let's face it, minuscule levels of hormones are in pretty much everything we eat and drink these days. It's almost impossible to avoid ingesting some level of hormones. Fortunately, our bodies are quite large and can tolerate a much higher level than the snails in the study. Unless, you happen to be a particularly slimy person...

This very much reminds of the argument against copper or aluminum parts in the brewery - "but think about all of the copper and aluminum you're ingesting in your beer". People fail to realize that small amounts of copper and aluminum are necessary for your body to function correctly. Hell, read the mineral list on your vitamin bottle next time.

Not all fading hippies from the 60's can become global warming alarmists! Some of them have to branch out into other fields to keep getting work.

Huh....hadn't heard about that before. I was reading an article about the potential of 'spraying' on a quartz film inside the bottles to prevent gas leakage, but not the estrogen thing. Actually, if you wanted to 'worry' about estrogen in your beer, take a gander at hops!

They are saying it is possible that PET plastics are leaching out a compound similar to Bisphenol-A. Polycarbonates leaching BPA only heavily leach when the bottles are heated. Heated bottles were found to leach 500x the levels of BPA as non-heated. Which is a problem when heated bottles were given to babies who are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of BPA. Hopefully if PET also leaches estrogen-like chemicals, it will similarly only be a major problem when the PET is heated to high temperatures.

its not pet itself but BPA which is an additive. i was listning to npr last night on the way home and they explained out they identified the problem in 89 while doing research into hormonal therapy in france. they found that the tubes they used were throwing off there readings and they found that the supplier started to add bpa to the compound.

There is no BPA in PET, the only additive I know of is antimony oxide (not metallic antimony). This is what some will claim is bad. The other thing mentioned is that it has phthalates in it, which... well it does, that is the T in PET ( terephthalate). It does not have orthophthalates which are the ones that are apparently bad.

A lot of this info is from this article. FAQs
which is biased. On the other hand the study I posted in the OP is also a bit off if they found estrogen compounds in the glass bottles as well.

More and more I'm thinking the test is full of crap. Anyway the type of antimony used in PET plastic is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony_trioxide
It is toxic at high levels... if you breath it in. It has a very low absorbing rate in the digestive tract.