What now- shouldn't drink tea with tea bags?

[Anonymous]

Most tea bags have crappy tea. That's why I use high-quality loose leaf. Not worried about microplastics, worried about it actually tasting good.

[Anonymous]

Worrying about this stuff so much is a sign of clinical anxiety.

[Anonymous]

We’re scaring ourselves to death.

[Anonymous]

I’m a tea loving teacher who definitely doesn’t have the time to deal with loose leaf tea at work. I guess I’ll switch to the “better” brands?

Literally everything is going to kill us. It’s depressing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Worrying about this stuff so much is a sign of clinical anxiety.

So true. We’re all gonna die anyway. And we’re all filled with red dye and microplastics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Newsflash: all the “paper” cups you drink coffee and tea out of are also lined with plastic. I wish more people drinking for here would ask for mugs so more places would carry them.

More news: There are PFAs in those paper straws that will save the planet.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/paper-bamboo-straws-contain-pfas-forever-chemicals-rcna101614

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Newsflash: all the “paper” cups you drink coffee and tea out of are also lined with plastic. I wish more people drinking for here would ask for mugs so more places would carry them.

More news: There are PFAs in those paper straws that will save the planet.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/paper-bamboo-straws-contain-pfas-forever-chemicals-rcna101614

Straws causes wrinkles over turn. More reason not to use them .

[Anonymous]

Nothing is safe, not even the things that are supposed to be good for us like tea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With many substances, 'the dose makes the poison," so how much tea would you have to consume from the "wrong" tea bags for the amount of microplastics actually to have any effect on your body long-term? Asking seriously. The presence of microplastics is not a shocker (they're in our tap water too) nor even is the idea that there might be quite a few microplastics involved. The bigger question is: At what level does it make any appreciable health difference for the individual drinking tea? Asking seriously. There are many things which in themselves are not good for us or even flat out bad for us--at massive doses we are never likely to ingest. So how much tea from these bags is the threshold for actual harm, if that's known yet? I think these latest studes are on cells in petri dishes and not human studies, is that right?

Nature journal article--experiments show plant roots steer away from plastic contamination in the soil when they can (but the process also causes more plant stress).

Experimentally, there are effects:

In vitro experiments with human cells and in vivo data generated with mice showed that microplastics elicit adverse health effects mainly by causing inflammation, oxidative stress [increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production], lipid metabolism disturbances, gut microbiota dysbiosis, and neurotoxicity. Exposing human gastric adenocarcinoma cells to 44 nm PS nanoparticles strongly increased the expression of the IL-6 and IL-8 genes, which are major inflammatory substances in the body.25 Exposing human glioblastoma multiforme cells (T98G cells) and human cervical carcinoma cells (HeLa cells)26 to PE microplastics only increased ROS production in the T98G cell line, whereas exposure to PS microplastics increased ROS production in both cell lines. As such, microplastic exposure not only increases ROS production in cerebral and epithelial cells, but it also increases oxidative stress in colon and small intestine epithelial cells27 and lung epithelial cells.19,24 The results of animal experiments reported to date have shown that exposing mice to PS microplastics caused lipid-metabolism disturbance in the liver, increased oxidative stress and acetylcholine esterase activity,28 and induces microbiota dysbiosis in the intestine.29

This does not answer the questions.

That was just an excerpt. It is very hard to separate out different kinds of environmental effects in humans (you can't deliberately expose a group of people to larger amounts to compare the effects in people with typical exposure) but there's a variety of stuff out there showing effects on offspring from maternal exposure in labs, effects on aquatic animals, and so on. You could sample blood and tissues from medical treatment of people all over the world, but it would be very hard to separate out all the other factors (diet, lifestyle, exposure to other pollutants, genetic effects in more isolated populations) etc etc. The same is true for other pollutants, epidemiological studies are the only means, you can't do experiments. This is how effects of low levels of lead exposure were found to have effects (poisoning from larger doses was already known).

You're not going to find the answer you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a tea loving teacher who definitely doesn’t have the time to deal with loose leaf tea at work. I guess I’ll switch to the “better” brands?

Literally everything is going to kill us. It’s depressing.

“In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.” - John Irving

[Anonymous]

I still remember being told NOT to give my baby peanuts and then being told OOPS I should have given my baby peanuts (and of course she’s allergic!) Thanks science and medicine!

[Anonymous]

Team loose tea here. It's so much better tasting. Plus theres no trash

[Anonymous]

My grandparents used Lipton tea bags and plastic stirring spoons to cook. They didn’t eat organic. They lived a long life.

[Anonymous]

More news is that most sea salt is teeming with microplastics. Because it comes from our water which is teeming with microplastics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My grandparents used Lipton tea bags and plastic stirring spoons to cook. They didn’t eat organic. They lived a long life.

They didn't grow up with as much plastic.