【Car owner’s home car knowledge】Putting a box of mineral water in the trunk of the vehicle in case of emergency is a habit that many car owners have, especially in the summer, almost every car owner does this. However, a recent rumor on the Internet that "mineral water can cause cancer after exposure to the sun" has made many car owners frightened. So, will the mineral water stored in the trunk in summer cause cancer?
Will harmful substances be released after exposure to the sun?
In order to verify whether harmful substances will precipitate from mineral water after exposure to the sun? Fellow media Sohu United Food Magazine once conducted an experiment. I purchased 10 brands of bottled water, two bottles of each brand with the same production date, and then divided them into two groups. One group was placed under the front windshield to be exposed to the sun, and the other group was placed in a cool place indoors for a week.
During the entire process, in order to understand the temperature inside the car, the experimenter will measure the temperature inside the car every 2 hours. During this week of testing, most of the days were sunny. On 4 days, the maximum temperature inside the car was measured at around 70°C, and on 3 days it was around 50°C. It is basically in line with the actual car situation.
(Image source: Food Guide Magazine)
A week later, two groups of mineral water were taken out and entrusted to the Comprehensive Testing Center of the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine for control testing. Strict testing was conducted on 18 plasticizers and the total number of bacterial colonies in the water. Experimental results showed that 18 possible carcinogenic plasticizers, including dioctyl phthalate (DEHP), were not detected in bottled water samples regardless of whether they had been exposed to the sun or not.
At what temperature will harmful substances be released from mineral water bottles?
If you want to know how high a temperature a mineral water bottle can withstand, you must first understand the raw materials of the mineral water bottle. Take the current situation as an example, 90% of mineral water bottles on the market use polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as the bottle material.
Professor Jiang Pingping from the School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering of Jiangnan University said that plasticizers are generally not added to the PET body of bottled water. This is determined by the production process of PET. The stability of PET is determined by the degree of polymerization of the material. Generally speaking, PET materials are very safe when the temperature is less than 120°C. Obviously, the temperature inside the car cannot reach such a high temperature, so there is no scientific basis for saying that putting mineral water in the trunk will produce toxic substances.
Can you drink water after being exposed to the sun?
Through the above experiments, we know that the mineral water in the car after exposure to the sun is safe and will not precipitate harmful substances. However, the author still recommends car owners to drink as little mineral water as possible after exposure to the sun. Among other things, the taste of mineral water after exposure to high temperatures is very poor.
But it is definitely not possible to use a car without water in summer. Since detecting high temperatures is not enough to cause the mineral water to deteriorate, it is still necessary to have some water in the trunk. But in summer, the trunk is easy to "get on fire", and the water stored in this way will also be difficult to enter. The best solution is to predict your own water demand first and put it in the storage compartment in the car in advance (the air conditioner will be on in the car and the water temperature will not rise). Only such water storage becomes valuable. Of course, since there is water stored in the trunk, try to avoid exposure to the sun when parking.
Final reminder. Because if the water is not finished within a short period of time after opening, it will easily breed various bacteria, deteriorate, and have adverse effects on the body. If it is not finished, it is best to take it away when you get off the car.
Email: