Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2397 readers

507 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Awa@lemmy.world

WhoRoger@lemmy.world

RoyalEngineering@lemmy.world

148

Commercial tea bags release millions of microplastics when in use (www.uab.cat)

submitted 2 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Summary

A Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona study reveals that polymer-based tea bags release millions to billions of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPLs) into tea when brewed.

These particles, derived from materials like nylon-6 and polypropylene, can enter human intestinal cells, even reaching cell nuclei.

Using advanced techniques, researchers characterized the released particles and found mucus-producing intestinal cells absorbed them most readily.

The study highlights potential health risks from chronic exposure and calls for standardised testing and regulatory policies to address MNPL contamination in food packaging, a growing concern for food safety and public health.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Not to burst your bubble but most conventional paper tea bags still have plastics in the adhesive to keep them together. Have to go out of your way to find products that avoid it.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For what it's worth, it does say "polymer based tea bags", so the way I'm interpreting that is that paper tea bags would at least be better

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No doubt! The nylon bags are all around terrible. Just not safe with any off the shelf paper bag either (looking at you Tazo & Teavana...). If it's compostable, should be okay.

[–] flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago

I'll never forgive Starbucks for what they did to Teavana!

That aside, I think anybody who ever tasted a triangle bag tea knows they're bad for you. They taste awful! Like plastic! I'm shocked they're still for sale.

load more comments (1 replies)