CLAIM:
Drinking water from plastic bottles is “poison” and can cause cancer. Using nail polish and artificial nails, especially while eating food with them on, can also lead to cancer.
FACT:
There is no reliable scientific evidence that drinking water from plastic bottles or using nail polish and artificial nails causes cancer under normal, real-world use. While certain chemicals in plastics and UV exposure from nail dryers have shown effects in laboratory studies, major health bodies and human studies have not established a direct causal link. Moderation and precaution are recommended, but the claims that these are “poison” or definite causes of cancer are not supported by current evidence.
In a viral Instagram reel that has garnered significant engagement, Dr Tarang Krishna appears in a podcast with Raj Shamani, founder and host of Figuring Out, and claims that drinking water from plastic bottles can cause cancer.
In the reel, Raj Shamani asks him to name one dangerous habit that Indians practice daily without realising it could lead to cancer. In response, Dr Tarang says, “Drinking water in a plastic bottle. That water is poison for you. You should not be having that.”
Raj Shamani further asks him to identify a cosmetic product that can cause health problems. To this, Dr Tarang replies, “Nail polish. Nail polish causes cancer. And the artificial nails that ladies apply, they eat food with those nails on, that is dangerous.”
Dr Tarang Krishna is a homoeopathy practitioner, who, according to his website, "completed his under-graduation in Medicine and Surgery from Pune, India and did his MD (Hom) from Agra University, India." He then went on to do his PhD in Oncology "from a prominent cancer institute of the United Kingdom." He now runs the popular Cancer Healer Centre, which focuses on "complementary and alternative medicine, with Immunotherapy (CAM) as a cornerstone," to treat cancer.
Does drinking from plastic bottles cause cancer?
Current evidence does not support the claim that drinking water from plastic bottles causes cancer. While research continues on long-term exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, no direct causal link has been established at real-world exposure levels.
A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between BPA, phthalates, and breast cancer. The researchers analysed nine studies involving 7,820 breast cancer cases and controls.
The study found that most examined chemicals — including BPA — were not significantly associated with breast cancer risk. The pooled odds ratio (OR) for BPA was 0.85, suggesting no statistically significant association.
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The authors concluded that phthalate metabolites MBzP and MiBP were passively associated with breast cancer, “whereas no associations were found between BPA, MEP, MEHHP, MEHP, MEOHP, MCPP, and MBP and breast cancer. More high-quality case-control studies or persuasive cohort studies are urgently needed to draw the best conclusions.” The authors also emphasised the need for more robust research.
In fact, Cancer Research UK, a leading cancer research organisation, states clearly that everyday use of plastic food and drink containers does not cause cancer. Addressing concerns around BPA, it explains, “Some people are worried about chemicals from plastic bottles and containers passing into their food and drink. For example, the chemical bisphenol A (‘BPA’), which is used to make some plastics. BPA can be found in food containers, reusable bottles and as a lining in food tins and drink cans. But the amount of BPA that can get into food and drink is too small to cause harm. Our bodies break down most of the BPA within a short time and get rid of it in our pee.”
It further clarifies, “Food and drink that’s stored in plastic bottles and containers doesn’t cause cancer. Small amounts of chemicals can get into food and drink from plastic packaging. But this is at low levels that are not considered harmful to our health. This is still true in experiments where plastics are heated for hours at a time. There’s no reliable evidence from studies of people that food and drinks stored in plastic cause cancer.”
The organisation notes that some experimental studies showing cancer-related effects are based on animal models or laboratory cell studies using high chemical concentrations - conditions that do not reflect typical human exposure.
Do nail polish or artificial nails cause cancer?
Research on UV nail polish dryer lamps, used for curing gel manicures, does not provide strong evidence that they cause skin cancer, though some lab studies show cell damage or DNA mutations in isolated cells exposed to UVA light. Overall, evidence is limited and does not establish a clear causal link in humans.
Harvard Health notes that while UV lamps emit UVA radiation (which can contribute to cancer risk in general), typical use during gel manicures is unlikely to significantly increase risk, and the gel polish itself has not been linked to cancer in human studies.
Some ingredients historically found in nail polish, such as formaldehyde or certain solvents, are recognised hazards (e.g., formaldehyde is classified as a human carcinogen in occupational settings), but this applies to specific chemicals at sufficient exposure levels, not nail polish use per se. Regulatory science evaluates such ingredients on a case-by-case basis. (For example, the EU banned one gel polish ingredient - TPO, over carcinogenic/mutagenic concerns, but this does not prove nail polish causes cancer at typical use.
A dermatology toxicology study examining UV nail dryers found no significant reduction in human keratinocyte viability after four minutes of exposure — which reflects typical manicure conditions — but a 20-minute exposure reduced cell viability by 35%. The researchers noted that “typical manicure exposure time does not significantly affect keratinocyte viability,” meaning it is unlikely to meaningfully increase skin cancer risk under normal use. However, they recommended precaution, stating that sunscreen “significantly increases the viability of keratinocytes” during UV lamp exposure.
This story is done in collaboration with First Check, which is the health journalism vertical of DataLEADS
