Effects of storage time and temperature on the antimony and some trace element release from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into the bottled drinking water

Background and objectives: heavy metals are considered as one of the major contaminants that can enter intothe bottled waters. antimony (sb) is a contaminant, which may leach from the polyethylene terephthalate (pet)bottles into the water. the aim of this study was to investigate the content of antimony and other trace elementsin bottled waters which was kept in varied storage conditions and temperatures.materials and methods: five time-temperature treatments were carried out on five different brands of commerciallyavailable bottled waters. heavy metal measurement was performed by inductively coupled plasma-atomicemission spectroscopy (icp-aes) method. analysis of the collected data was processed by spss software.results: antimony concentration was the main concern in our study. the concentrations increased in each of thesample during storage period at all temperatures. the results for different conditions were as follow: at 40°c, inoutdoor and at room temperature the sb concentrations were below the mcls, i e. 6 ppb. however, at 65°c and80°c for longer storage times sb concentration exceeded the mcls, and variations between the samples weresignificant (p ? 0.05). storage time and temperature effects on the content of some other trace elements such asal, fe were also significant (p ? 0.05).conclusion: by increasing the duration of storage time and temperatures, antimony leaching from the pet bottlesinto the bottled water increased. the concentration of al demonstrated an increase in higher temperatures andstorage duration, whereas the content of fe demonstrated no significant differences.