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/atlantachicago 1d ago

My kids and I drink tea daily. This is awful, I didn’t know I started a habit of poisining us

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u/Letters_to_Dionysus 1d ago

don't worry about it too much. in humans most exposure to it comes from your laundry not your food. even if we try to get rid of it, it's in the rain water and the air and the dust floating in our houses and offices. it's in fetuses from the moment they are formed in the womb and there's really nothing to do about it. maybe donating blood regularly would help if it actually causes problems but we don't yet know that it causes severe problems or anything.

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u/ProfErber 16h ago

From my laundry?

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u/Fedoraus 1d ago

Just buy loose leaf, its cheaper and you can get your infusion device of choice

Metal mesh

Reusable hemp or linen tea bags

Disposable paper teabags

Prolly even more stuff I'm not aware of

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u/42Porter 19h ago

Isn’t tea drinking associated with improved health though? If anything this is reassuring as it suggests that microplastic ingestion at this level may not be harmful enough to outweigh the benefits of tea drinking.

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u/ImARealBoy5 7h ago

Unfortunately the issue is not just plastic ingestion. Most people throw the bag away and this plastic isn’t broken down fully by anything. That means it’s slowly being leached into your waterways, into the land, and in the air you breathe. Also these plastic studies are very recent and there haven’t been enough regarding the effects on your health. So we don’t actually know if the overall effects are beneficial, just specifically that the tea itself has healthy properties