The Russian Chemist Union (RCU) reckons that the presence of harmful substances in plastic bottles is not possible. The RCU President stated that it is not possible that PET bottles contain phthalates. This contradicts the laws of chemistry and the results of numerous Russian and foreign research projects.
Phthalates (dibutyl phthalate, isobutyl, etc.) are substances which are widely used as plasticizers, mainly in the processing of polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Phthalates are low molecular weight products manufactured at industrial scale from a completely different product - naphthalene (phthalic) acid. This product is also manufactured from another material which is not paraxylene but phthalic anhydride. Phthalates are not generated during the PET synthesis. During the process of PET no plasticizers are used. PET is a high molecular weight polymer, which has nothing in common with low molecular weight phthalates except the name similarity.