Drinking Tea And The Rise Of Microplastics

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Many individuals drink at least a cup of tea each day and do not think of anything else than the tea itself but the new findings have raised suspicions as to the existence of some other substances which may accompany tea. In particular, the newest scientific discoveries have found out that there might be microplastics, incredibly little particles created from plastic, which can infiltrate into any food or drink.  In this sense, several tests have indicated that one cup of tea, brewed with the right plastic tea bags, might include billions of microplastics in its composition. The mention of such figures as 11.6 billion microplastics has aroused a lot of curiosity among the populace and motivated them to study materials of tea bags and the quality of the filtered water they use.

Although in your regular routine drinking tea may seem like a healthy activity, you will be surprised to find that even tea drinking can have adverse effects in terms of exposure to microplastics. Some varieties of tea bags are sealed or reinforced with plastic materials that shatter into microplastics under boiling water. Also, there might be some microplastics present in the water itself which makes tea a possible source of microplastics. While there is no evidence of the negative effects of ingesting microplastics, it is advisable to minimise your exposure to them. Some simple answers to your problem are to use filtered water, use loose leaf tea or choose brands that use plastic free tea bags.

The worst thing is that boiling doesn’t eliminate the microplastics in the unfiltered water. Boiling will destroy hazardous germs in the tea—but won’t get rid of microplastic particles in the water. This implies that even if one is very careful in brewing tea, he or she may still have some unwanted ingredients in his or her tea. The best way to deal with the problem is to install a good water filtration system that filters out microplastics and other pollutants. Other things you can do is to drink eco-friendly tea, be attentive about product labelling, opt for reputable brands and use reusable glass or stainless tea infusers.

I for one see no need to get stressed up about eating tea. It should be a pleasurable experience. Being thoughtful about the tea we pick and the cleanliness of the water we drink tea with can greatly reduce the dangers of consuming microplastics. AquaTru, for example, uses a four-stage reverse osmosis filtering method to filter the water and remove 84 different impurities, including microplastics. There is no such a technology yet that would protect us from all possible sources of microplastics in our environment, but by taking care of what water we drink, we take care of ourselves. Every little step toward clean water will add up to better habits. Let’s be vigilant and select safer choices when we can. 

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