Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Bottled water has become part of everyone’s daily life. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate its influence on the human health and the environment. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the major type of material to be used for water bottles. The PET bottles can in fact affect the quality of water it holds. One major concern is leaching of antimony from PET water bottles. As such, this paper investigated the existence of antimony in the bottled water. Experiments were conducted on exposing water with bottles from different brands at different times and temperatures. After the experiments were conducted, water was tested for antimony using the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS) machine. The results indicated that antimony was leaching from the PET bottles. Longer exposure indicated higher antimony leaching, as was the case for higher temperatures in most samples.