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Single tea bag can leak billions of pieces of microplastic

We Never Know

No Slack
Are you drinking plastic with your tea?

Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed the effects of placing four different commercial tea bags into boiling water.

They found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup -- thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink.

The health effects of drinking these particles are unknown, according to the researchers, who called for further study into the area.

Single tea bag can leak billions of pieces of microplastic
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
and facial makeup has a similar problem
on a larger scale

which is clogging the gills of the creatures that have scales
further down the water line
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
what I am not sure of is the report that we humans of industrial environment
carry a pound of plastic in our guts

seems an exaggeration

but hey
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Now we can worry about everything. Drink tea from tea bags, you're doomed. A dog kisses you, you're doomed. Eat sugar, you're doomed. And so forth.

And to think that back in my youth, all we had to worry about was nuclear weapons and the end of the world.

Life was much simpler then.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
Are you drinking plastic with your tea?

Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed the effects of placing four different commercial tea bags into boiling water.

They found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup -- thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink.

The health effects of drinking these particles are unknown, according to the researchers, who called for further study into the area.

Single tea bag can leak billions of pieces of microplastic
My local grocery stores have quit stocking loose-leaf tea, as well. I have to order it online. (As a note: the price of Chinese Oolong tea has quadrupled since the Chinese tariff talks. Anyone got a source for Indian loose leaf oolong tea?)
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
Are you drinking plastic with your tea?

Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed the effects of placing four different commercial tea bags into boiling water.

They found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup -- thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink.

The health effects of drinking these particles are unknown, according to the researchers, who called for further study into the area.

Single tea bag can leak billions of pieces of microplastic
That's one of the reasons we use loose tea, tastes better and better for the environment.

Has to be Yorkshire Tea, of course, despite being from the other side of the Pennines.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
That's one of the reasons we use loose tea, tastes better and better for the environment.

Has to be Yorkshire Tea, of course, despite being from the other side of the Pennines.


Most supermarkets here have over the last couple of years dedicated a whole isle to tea, much of it in bags but... Top shelf tea is a different thing, loose green and black teas including Yorkshire tea which we always have a spare box in the pantry.

Tiz good stuff... That said, time for coffee
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
That's scary. Are there teabags with no plastic?
My recommendation is to buy a teapot and make tea properly with loose tea leaves. It tastes far better: tea bags are filled using finely divided "dust" with much poorer flavour. OK you have to leave it for 3-5 mins to brew, but are we really that desperately busy that this is too long for us? Making the tea is a way of having a short break from whatever you are working on, surely a good idea. Tea leaves are disposed off into the compostable food waste. It is traditional in Britain to put them on the roses in the garden, though how beneficial this really is I do not know. But it does add fibre to the soil.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
Are you drinking plastic with your tea?

Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study.

Researchers at McGill University in Canada analyzed the effects of placing four different commercial tea bags into boiling water.

They found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup -- thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink.

The health effects of drinking these particles are unknown, according to the researchers, who called for further study into the area.

Single tea bag can leak billions of pieces of microplastic
That is criminal. They look like paper.

I instantly see a risk inherent to putting plastic into people's tea. Obviously if the plastic particles can cause inflammation then they can be a factor in colon cancer and in various aggravations of the intestinal tract. We don't need to wait for scientific studies to tell us whether this is a health problem. The responsibility is upon the tea manufacturer to make it clear that the tea bags are made of plastic and can leave plastics in the digestive tract. Not having done so they are ethically negligent. In my opinion they have behaved maliciously.
 
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crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
My recommendation is to buy a teapot and make tea properly with loose tea leaves. It tastes far better: tea bags are filled using finely divided "dust" with much poorer flavour. OK you have to leave it for 3-5 mins to brew, but are we really that desperately busy that this is too long for us? Making the tea is a way of having a short break from whatever you are working on, surely a good idea. Tea leaves are disposed off into the compostable food waste. It is traditional in Britain to put them on the roses in the garden, though how beneficial this really is I do not know. But it does add fibre to the soil.
I agree! Much better flavor with unbroken loose leaf teas! You can also get up to three brews from loose leaf tea. You can use a french press for hot tea. I cold brew my loose leaf leaf oolong tea a gallon at a time and sweeten it with mango/peach juice. We go through about 4 gallons of tea a week, so I was rather distressed to see the price of loose leaf Chinese Oolong jump from $10/lb to $55/lb in the stores. :eek:
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Now we can worry about everything. Drink tea from tea bags, you're doomed. A dog kisses you, you're doomed. Eat sugar, you're doomed. And so forth.

And to think that back in my youth, all we had to worry about was nuclear weapons and the end of the world.

Life was much simpler then.

We still have to worry about nuclear weapons and the end of the world.
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
Now we can worry about everything. Drink tea from tea bags, you're doomed. A dog kisses you, you're doomed. Eat sugar, you're doomed. And so forth.

And to think that back in my youth, all we had to worry about was nuclear weapons and the end of the world.

Life was much simpler then.

If it makes you feel any better, nuclear annihilation is still perfectly possible.

See! There's always a bright side :)
 
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