# bacteria danger from refilling water bottle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858 "2013-08-22T05:01:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/21 "2013-08-22T19:25:46Z")
I was under the impression that the bacteria came in the form of food being backwashed into the bottle, taking a drink with food in your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/22 "2013-08-22T20:18:38Z")
Pro Tip: Lay the bottles on their sides when freezing. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/23 "2013-08-22T21:00:48Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > What always amuses me about studies or articles like that is that they are full of “ZOMG!!! Bacteria!!!” scaremongering but totally fail to notice the obvious, namely that if the objects are All Dreadfully Contaminated but the people using them aren’t actually getting sick, then perhaps they need to think a bit harder about whether their findings are actually important instead of making alarmist pronouncements and feeding germophobic hysteria. Here’s something else to consider. If there are bacteria in a water bottle, where did they come from, and how did they get there? Hint: They came from the same place where you might be worried about them going—a place that already contains many, many more just like them. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/24 "2013-08-22T21:11:30Z")
> [@JBDivmstr](#): > > Seriously? And… you _believe_ that? :rolleyes: > Absolutely DEADLY, it is! 😉 > Why, it _KILLS_ untold numbers of people _ **every day** _, all over the world! :eek: > It needs to be _ **OUTLAWED** _, I tells you! 😛 Prolonged exposure to solid dihydrogen monoxide causes severe tissue damage. Dihydrogen monoxide is a major constituent of acid rain. Hundreds of people a year die from accidentally inhaling dihydrogen monoxide. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/25 "2013-08-23T03:41:08Z")
Zero risk. I keep a half-gallon juice jug on my desk, which I refill with tapwater to drink from through the day. I never wash it, I just refill it, and it’s been going for two or three years. It I notice it getting a bit grungy around the lip where I swig from it, I wipe it down with a damp cloth. I also have about ten milk jugs full of water set aside, every once in a while when it rains, the tapwater has an unpleasant taste for a day or two, and I drink from those. Even after a couple of years, they’re fine. In clean tapwater, any oral bacteria does not develop to any significant degree. But if you do that with a milk jug full of milk, it will go bad quickly. If you are careful to not let anything get into your milk, it will go sour (which is delicious), but will not spoil and go bad. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/26 "2013-08-23T07:13:45Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > Wiki says one-use polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles will leech Antimony. the levels may not be hazardous but there it is. And various plastics can leach chemicals used in their production. A major sporting goods chain here in Norway sold a lot of colored bottles for kids where the color leached into the water for instance. But even when that’s an issue it’s not an issue with reusing bottles, it’s a problem with the bottles in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/27 "2013-08-23T09:00:03Z")
> [@naita](#): > > And various plastics can leach chemicals used in their production. Like what, when? Feel free to give cites. Do you just have the one anecdote? Was the colour that leached harmful? ---
**Author:** ![Ad\_Astra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Ad\_Astra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ad_Astra)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/28 "2013-08-23T19:21:19Z")
While I know that the plural of anecdote isn’t data, I have noticed that if I use a normal plastic water bottle for more than 2 weeks or so, I start getting a sore throat and a stuffy nose. At first I thought it was just seasonal allergies or a cold, but it happened regularly - I’d drink out of a bottle for a few weeks, get a sore throat, switch my bottle out, the sore throat/stuffy nose would go away, rinse, repeat. This happened for a few years (I’m a slow learner apparently) until I shelled out for one of the Camelbak Eddy bottles mentioned above. As always, YMMV - all I know is that reusing bottles for weeks led to a measurable effect for me. I can’t really think of anything else that could cause an effect (seemingly) tied to water bottle usage, but it certainly looks like I’m in the minority in this case. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/29 "2013-08-24T10:43:45Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Like what, when? Feel free to give cites. Do you just have the one anecdote? Was the colour that leached harmful? That chemical additives from plastic containers **can** leach into the content is hardly a contentious issue. So no, I don’t “just have the one anecdote”. > **[Plastic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastics)** > > Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be molded, extruded, or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptability, combined with a wide range of other properties, such as being lightweight, durable, flexible, nontoxic, and inexpensive to produce, has led to their widespread use around the world. Most plastics are derived from natural gas and petroleum, and a small... [http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2008/11/06/testtubes-leaching.html](http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2008/11/06/testtubes-leaching.html) The extent and effect is more debatable of course. Personally I’m not worried, but I’m not an expert, and health effects or no health effects I’d throw away a bottle that turned my water pink. I don’t know anything about the toxicity of the particular colour in the incidence I mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/30 "2013-08-24T12:55:42Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I read somewhere that dihydrogen monoxide was toxic. There is a lot of scaremongering BS out there. Quite right. An excess of dihydrogen monoxide can (and has) lead to death from hyponatria. Around here, they are planning to ban the use of fireplaces because they release particulate matter into the air. They do of course, but I’d bet that over 90% of the particulate matter in the air comes from tires. And it is likely made substantially worse by all the stop sign forests they have erected. Swallow a camel and strain at a gnat. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858/31 "2013-08-24T14:56:36Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It I notice it getting a bit grungy around the lip where I swig from it, I wipe it down with a damp cloth. This was what I thought of. Sometimes, a refilled bottle can get a foul, wet-towel-never-dried-right smell around the neck. I think this is from lip slough (ick) mildewing (ick) but that would be fungus, not bacteria. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bacteria-danger-from-refilling-water-bottle/666858.md?page=1)