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The Sheryl Crow Bottled Water Cancer Hoax Debunked!

The story that singer Sheryl Crow got her breast cancer from bottled water that was left in a car keeps going around.

Let us fact-check the claims, and debunk the hoax, once and for all!

 

The Sheryl Crow Bottled Water Cancer Hoax

The Sheryl Crow story about bottled water causing her breast cancer keeps spreading through email chains, as well as Facebook and other social media platforms.

We debunked this way back in 2011, but it keeps making its rounds, especially in “natural health” groups and websites.

Check out one example of this story – the other variants run basically along the same lines :

Bottled water in your car is very dangerous!

On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said that this is what caused her breast cancer. It has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue.

Sheryl Crow’s oncologist told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water.

Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

Pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know that just might save us! Use a stainless steel canteen or a glass bottle instead of plastic!

LET EVERYONE WHO HAS A WIFE / GIRLFRIEND / MUM /DAUGHTER KNOW PLEASE!

Let’s dissect the claims one by one…

 

Claim #1 : Sheryl Crow’s breast cancer was caused by bottled water

The Claim : Bottled water in your car is very dangerous! On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said that this is what caused her breast cancer.

Verdict : False

The Truth : Sheryl Crow taped a segment with Ellen Degeneres for the Breast Cancer Awareness Month on October 10, 2008.

However, she did not talk about her own breast cancer story. And she certainly did NOT warn viewers not to drink bottled water that have been left in the car.

It was 18 months earlier, on March 28, 2007, when she talked about her fight against breast cancer with Harry Smith on the CBS show – Eye to Eye.

In that segment, she only advocated for more funding for the investigation of environmental causes of breast cancer. At no point did she ever mention bottled water.

 

Claim #2 : Bottled water was identified as main cause of dioxin in breast cancer

The Claim : [Bottled water] has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue.

Verdict : False

The Truth : Dioxins are naturally present in the environment, but when it comes to food sources, it is found most abundantly in dairy products, meat, fish and shellfish.

Not bottled water.

 

Claim #3 : Sheryl Crow’s oncologist advised against drinking bottled water left in the car

The Claim : Sheryl Crow’s oncologist told her: women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water.

Verdict : False

The Truth : There is no verified account of what her oncologist told her, but it’s almost certainly false because PET plastic bottles do NOT contain dioxin.

Therefore, it is impossible for dioxin to leach out from any PET plastic bottle, even if they are exposed to heat or sunlight.

 

Claim #4 : Dioxins cause breast cancer

The Claim : Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue.

Verdict : False

The Truth : Dioxins are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are suspected to increase cancer risk. However, a March 2015 study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research showed that this might not be the case.

The team analysed the diet of over 63 thousand women, and followed them for 15 years to determine the effect of dietary dioxin on their breast cancer risks.

In the end, they concluded that an increase in dioxin intake did not correlate with an increase in the risk of breast cancer.

 

Bottled Water Is Bad, Just Not A Source Of Dioxin

Now, we are not promoting bottled water. In fact, we think that everyone should STOP buying bottled water, and use refillable bottles instead.

Bottled water creates plastic waste that pollutes the environment, and harms animals that accidentally consume micro-plastics.

We end up eating the plastic waste ourselves, because bits of plastic contaminate our food sources.

So avoid bottled water, because it’s bad for our environment… not because some stupid hoax claims it causes breast cancer.

 

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