Shexy bottle?

wasn't there something once about plastic bottles being bad for your health?

I always had the vague idea that all plastics were full of harmful chemicals, at least when they start to breakdown.

Found this on yahoo answers though:

PCB's (PolyChlorinatedBiphenyl's) are a group of oily liquids used chiefly as transformer oil and sometimes found in the ballasts of old fluorescent lights. Some old paints and inks also contained PCB's. Like many other chlorinated aromatic compounds (like DDT), PCB's are very resistant to weathering and are heat resistant. They can be metabolized in living organisms however, and can be quite toxic. Like DDT, PCB's accumulate in body fat. Released into the environment, they pass up the food chain and become very concentrated at the top. Beluga whales in the St. Lawerence seaway are heavily polluted, as are "killer" whales off the Pacific coast.

PCB's are now banned and are not, nor ever were used in any plastics I am aware of. Perhaps the author of the article confused these compounds with another group of chemicals known as phthalates. These are added to plastics to make them rubbery and flexible. They are oily liquids like PCB's but not acutely toxic. However, di-octyl phthalate can mimic the female hormone estrogen and might be linked to the prevalance of breast cancer in developed countries. Phthalates are being gradually replaced by other compounds which are (supposedly) non-toxic. PBB's are PolyBrominated Biphenyls and were once used as fire retardants. Mixed with plastic, the concept was that they were sealed inside the product, but like phthalates, they will eventually leach out of plastics.

PCB's were once used as a sealant for the insides of silos. The concrete walls decomposed because of the acidic reaction of silage and needed a waterproof coat. Unfortunately, PCB's leached out of the coating and contaminated the milk supply. Most states required contaminated silos destroyed, but Indiana only required the sealant be painted over. This solved the problem temporarily, but the contamination re-appeared as the paint flaked off.

                  **Source(s):**

     I am a government chemist and test milk for PCB's