Leaching of antimony from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into mineral water Original Research Article

The Sb leaching from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) package material into 10 different brands of still (non-carbonated) and sparkling (carbonated) Hungarian mineral water purchased in supermarkets was investigated by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SF-MS). The Sb concentration measured in PET package materials varied between 210 and 290 mg/kg. Generally, the Sb concentration of still mineral water was lower than that of sparkling in the case of identical storage time. For modelling improper storage conditions, storage time (10–950 days), temperature (22 °C–70 °C), illumination (dark vs. 23 W daylight lamp for 116 h) as well as bottle volume (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 L) were taken into consideration. Under certain extreme light and temperature storage conditions, the Sb concentration of some samples exceeded the concentration value of 2 ng/mL. The extent of Sb leaching from the PET recipients of different brands of mineral water can differ by even one order of magnitude in experiments conducted under the same conditions. Thus, the adequate selection of the polymer used for the production of the PET bottle for the solar water disinfection (SODIS) procedure seems to ensure low Sb levels in the water samples.