Warning over leaving your water bottle in your car

Reusable water bottles are becoming more widespread than ever as people are increasingly conscious of recycling.

But while these can be helpful in reducing the amount of plastic waste out there, some water bottles can pose a health risk if left in a car.

This is all to do with the material that those bottles are made from.

While reusable water bottles are made from a more durable type of plastic than bottled water bottles, the chemical make up of the plastic still means that it might pose a risk if left out in the sun for an extended period.

It is all to do with an ongoing risk towards our health as the use of plastics, particularly single use plastics, continues to expand.

Microplastics can get into the water (Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty)

This is of course the ongoing health risk posed by microplastics - the microscopic fragments of plastics that can make their way into our bodies through our food and our drink.

A study found that when a plastic bottle of water is left in sunlight, for example by being left in a car for an extended period, then the UV light interacts with the plastic in the bottle.

This causes the plastic to release large quantities of microscopic plastics into the water in the bottle, with the research from 2023 finding that, while different types of plastic reacted differently, they did all release the plastic particles in higher temperatures.

Two things were important in this happening - the exposure to UV light, and the temperature, with higher temperatures meaning that the particles are released.

In the study, bottles in hotter environments released billions of particles, whereas those in a cooler place did not.

This also impacted the cheaper plastic bottles, and the levels can become high enough that this could pose a health risk.

Soil and water science professor Lena Ma told Food and Wine: “If you store the water long enough, there may be a concern."

So what can you do to prevent this?

You could get a metal reusable bottle instead (Jackyenjoyphotography/Getty)

Well one option is obviously to just not leave your plastic water bottle in the car, or exposed to UV light for an extended period, and to make sure you keep it in a cool place.

Alternatively, if you know that at some point you are going to accidentally leave your bottle in the car, or somewhere else hot and you don't want to take the risk, then you could invest in a bottle made from a different material.

Glass might not be the best option for a bottle that's out and about due to the risk of it breaking, but metal water bottles are popular and available at most outdoors shops.

Just make sure you give it a good wash on a regular basis.