A Louisiana woman is warning you to think twice about where you get your bottled water from after she caught several cases “cooking in the sun.” She went so far as to double-check her claim, but was she being an alarmist, or is there some truth to her PSA?
In a viral TikTok, @kristierin5 shares a clip of the area behind her grocery store in Sulphur, Louisiana. She records several pallets of water bottles on the pavement, basking in the sun.
“If your bottled water tasted weird from the grocery store, this is why,” she writes in the text overlay. “COOKING in the sun.” @kristierin5 adds Sheryl Crow’s iconic “Soak Up the Sun” to accompany the TikTok.
To prove her point, @kristierin5 went back to the supermarket, which she revealed was Rouses Market, three days later. The pallets of water were still sitting there in the sun.
“This is where they store the waters,” she says. She walked to one pallet and zoomed in on the product. The label read “Rouses Markets Spring Water.”
Her initial clip earned over 1.3 million views as of Wednesday, but the comments section wasn’t without its skeptics.
“Yall know the bottles are sealed air tight from the manufacturer right?” one user wrote, using a pace-palm emoji. Another echoed, “As if the warehouses and trucks aren’t just as bad.” This led @kristierin5 to reply, “Do they have the sun in the warehouses?”
Others, however, were just as horrified as @kristierin5.
“All them microplastics melting into the water,” a top comment with 31,000 likes read. Another exasperated user called it a lose-lose situation, writing, “It’s either toxic plastic water bottle water or toxic chemical sink water. There is so winning.”
A third viewer tired of the way food is stored was desperated for a “better solution.” “The amount of food that just sits out in unsafe temperatures is concerning,” they said.
Others vowed to switch to glass-bottled water while one straight up urged folks to stop drinking water that sits in front of convenience stores.
But are the users write in thinking this “cooked” water causes cancer?
@kristierin5 #fyp ♬ original sound – Rock Hall
Is it safe to drink bottled water that’s been sitting in the sun?
Turns out, the TikToker and her viewers were onto something. In short, it can be dangerous to drink bottled water that’s been in the sun or left in a hot car. According to some researchers, chemicals from the plastic, which is made from polyethylene terephthalate, can leak into the water under high temperatures. Food Navigator also reported on a study from Jinan University in China that revealed the water bottles can release volatile organic compounds (VOC) when exposed to the sun.
The study reported that while not “acutely toxic,” VOCs can impact eye, nose, and throat health and cause “severe damage to liver and kidneys.”
An expert from the University of Florida, Lena Ma, told Yahoo Health that bottled water is safe. However, “just don’t leave it in a hot temperature for a long time. I think that’s the important message.”
The Mary Sue reached out to the creator via TikTok direct message and to Rouses Market via web contact form.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
