We've all done it. We start drinking a bottle of water and then leave the unfinished portion in the car for a few hours or maybe even a day or two. With temperatures soaring in San Antonio, you may be wondering if that water is safe to drink.
KSAT's Houston sister station, KPRC, wondered the same thing. Consumer reporter Amy Davis sent an unfinished bottle of water to a testing laboratory. The testers had some troubling findings.
"We had total coliform counts greater than 2,420," Laura Bojonia, of Envirodyne , old KPRC. "We had heterotrophic plate counts greater than 73,000."
The bacteria was found in levels that would cause a public water system to issue health warnings.
You can read more about KPRC's experiment on the station's website.
There have also been concerns that the heat could cause dangerous chemicals from the plastic bottle to leach into the water. A previous study by University of Florida concluded it's not a "major concern" in most cases but the UF scientist warned against leaving bottled water (or other drinks in bottles) stored in hot places like your garage or car "for weeks on end or in your car all day during the summer."
Watch KPRC's report::