I recently read we should not freeze water in plastic bottles because freezing releases dioxin from the plastic. Is this just the disposable throw-away bottles or does it include the expensive reusable sports bottles?

-- Allen W., Medford

Allen, you've been reading those mass forwarded e-mails again, haven't you?

Never fear, Since You Asked is here ... with a tray of glistening frozen plastic water bottles.

On those long summer hikes through the best of Southern Oregon's outdoor sites, you can take along a frozen plastic water bottle to quench your thirst without fear of increasing your risk of cancer or other health effects possibly associated with exposure to dioxins.

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Greg Miller, an associate professor of chemistry at Southern Oregon University, says the popular belief that freezing plastic water bottles releases dioxins is a myth.

"A number of studies have debunked that," Miller said.

Dioxins are not present in plastics. Besides, freezing temperatures slow down chemical transference anyway, so it goes against common sense to suggest that freezing water bottles will leach chemicals while at room temperature they will not.

The most popular study on the release of dioxins come out of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in case you're feeling studious. Visit this shortened link to Dr. Rolf Halden's report on this urban myth at http://tinyurl.com/fpzp7 (the original Johns Hopkins Web address was 80 characters — too long to reproduce here.)

Happy water drinking!

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