Study: Tea Bags May Contaminate Our Drinks With More Microplastics Than Mineral Water Bottles

Who would have thought that tea bags could pollute our drinks? 

Public Health Malaysia shared that recent research titled Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea revealed that tea bags can contaminate our drinks with billions of tiny pieces of microplastic. What?! 

Normally, tea bags are made of paper and plastic is used to seal the bag the tea leaves are in. But, lately, premium tea brands have been using a special kind of plastic to make their tea bags. You know, the soft and silky ones! 

Source: discover magazine

While they look pretty when they are soaked in hot water, the plastic releases tiny particles of microplastic which are not visible to the naked eye. Shockingly, the amount of microplastic found in a drink which was made using tea bags is more than microplastic particles in a bottled drink.

Nevertheless, this is still a new discovery and it needs a little more research in terms of the effects on our health in the long term. On that note, researchers are suggesting that we use tea brands whose tea bags are 100 percent free from plastic usage or to stay on the safe side, we can just use loose tea leaves to make our drink.

Source: metro

Dang, this is a little bit scary since Malaysians love drinking tea (especially teh tarik) but it’s better to be safe than sorry, thus we should pay heed to the researchers’ advice, which is mentioned above. 

Also read: Study: Asian Salt Discovered to Be Contaminated With Highest Amount of Microplastics