Your Tea Bag Is Likely Releasing Billions of Microplastic Particles, According to a New Study
Your Tea Bag Is Likely Releasing Billions of Microplastic Particles, According to a New Study
Research from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain found that individual tea bags steeped in boiling water can release billions of micro- and nanoplastic particles. Here's what to know.
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Buying lots of premium tea isn't that much more expensive...
Why won't you guys do it?
This study is such bullshit. They took 300 teabags and boiled them in 600ml of water while stirring at 750rpm for an unspecified amount of time, and claim their method to be an accurate simulation of making a cup of tea.
I had trouble believing you at first so I hunted down the study https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524026377?via%3Dihub to verify. You're completely right!
Three teabag types were purchased online (Amazon and AliExpress) or in a local supermarket. The online-purchased teabags were ordered empty (with no tea inside) and with a known polymer composition
The third teabag type (sample 3), bought in the supermarket, was a regular tea brand of green tea
300 teabags were transferred into a 1 L beaker (pre-washed and sterilized) containing 600 mL of Milli-Q water at 95 ◦C with constant stirring (750 rpm).
It sounds like they were using a magnetic stir bar rather than a spoon or rod but still, 300 teabags, most of which coming empty from Amazon or AliExpress in 600ml is ridiculous.
It’s almost too absurd to believe.
There’s a conversation to be had about microplastic contamination, but this study feels and sounds like bad faith argument.
They probably microwaved the water too, and didn’t use a saucer. No mention of when they put the milk in?
Not clicking but if this is the one from a while ago its specifically about plastic teabags. And, like, obviously.
If you stir with a plastic spoon you'll have even more
What if I exclusively drink out of disposable plastic mugs? That's still fine, right?
Pro tip from someone who encounters these tea bags a lot and was already uncomfortable with them. Open the bag and put it in a french press or metal loose leaf holder