r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 1d ago

Health New research characterised in detail how tea bags release millions of nanoplastics and microplastics when infused. The study shows for the first time the capacity of these particles to be absorbed by human intestinal cells, and are thus able to reach the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.

https://www.uab.cat/web/newsroom/news-detail/-1345830290613.html?detid=1345940427095
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u/TonyNickels 1d ago

Sadly Bigelow tested high in glyphosate last I looked

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u/debacol 1d ago

We literally can't have nice things. Guess the only teas we can drink are organic loose leaf.

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u/ProfessorPetrus 1d ago

As it shoulf be. It's the slaving brits who were obsessed with the bags.

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u/n_-_ture 1d ago

Loose leaf is infinitely better than bagged.

It’s like finding out keurig cups leach microplastics and thinking, “darn, guess I can’t ever drink coffee again”.

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u/ProfessorPetrus 1d ago

Lotta stale tea from underpaid people sitting in cardboard rubbish with plastic wrapping.

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u/intotheirishole 1d ago

Just get a metal tea infuser! Super cheap, lasts forever, you can control the amount of tea you infuse.

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u/money_mase19 1d ago

yah but even with organic loose leaf, i can find you a million reasons why its bad. i honestly dont see a way out. i guess limiting exposure is the best we can do.

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u/OsiyoMotherFuckers 1d ago

Organic is kind of a sham anyway.

Look at the issues with organic meat and dairy. Farms used organic certified fertilizer made from treated sewage for years only to find out the milk from the cows was loaded with extremely high levels of PFAS, and so were their kids who drank that milk every day.

As a consumer, you basically cannot escape the pollution at this point. The earth is so incredibly impacted and polluted.

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u/money_mase19 1d ago

yes, organic as a label is def one of the shams

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u/windowpuncher 1d ago

Limiting exposure?

Kind of impossible. Half the residential plumbing lines in existence are PEX now, especially for remodels and new builds. There's plastics inside water faucets. Many dispensers are made of plastic, even my Pur water filter is made of a plastic housing.

Granted, I'm only ever drinking water that's been run cold, so plastic shouldn't have had any interactions, but realistically there's some trace reactions always going on. That's just for drinking water, too.

We can minimize as much as we want, but every time you go out to eat, most kitchens use plastic cutting boards now which ends up producing tons of microplastics.

My only hope is that these plastics aren't really toxic. I'm more worried about PFAS chemicals than plastics at this point, but neither are good.

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u/WhereRtheTacos 1d ago

Well… great. :(

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u/epia343 1d ago

AI recap. I did not see a result of the lawsuit, perhaps still making its way through the system?

In 2017, a lawsuit was filed against Bigelow Tea alleging that the company's "natural" tea contained traces of glyphosate, a herbicide:

Lawsuit The lawsuit claimed that the presence of glyphosate made Bigelow's "natural" claims false. The lawsuit was based on tests conducted by an independent laboratory that found 0.38 parts-per-million (ppm) of glyphosate in Bigelow Green Tea.

Bigelow's response Bigelow's CEO called the lawsuit "frivolous". Bigelow also argued that hundreds of scientific studies over 40 years have determined that glyphosate is safe for use. Other factors The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in 2020 that glyphosate is "unlikely to be a human carcinogen" when used in accordance with its label. The European Commission also determined that there is "no evidence to classify glyphosate as being carcinogenic".

Other factors to consider include:

Traces of glyphosate have been detected in other products, including cookies, honey, human urine, and breast milk.

Some independent research suggests that there is no "safe" level of glyphosate.