Critical warning as thousands of microplastic particles are found in popular beverage

Researchers are sounding the alarm on a drink that more than half the US population downs daily.They say it’s often loaded with microplastics — tiny bits of plastic less than 5 millimeters — which have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular issues, cellular damage and certain cancers.Recent studies claim that these shards are everywhere, from dust in the air to 60% of the food we eat.But it’s not hopeless: Experts say you can cut down on your consumption by simply avoiding things like plastic cooking utensils and food storage containers for reheating.And if you’re one of the 159 million Americans who have a cup of tea daily, new research suggests that you’ll want to stay clear of the brands that use plastic tea bags.Scientists compared brews from 14 brands that use plastic tea bags and 14 brands of bulk tea, aka loose-leaf tea.Each was steeped for three minutes at 203 degrees Fahrenheit (95 degrees Celsius).The tea from plastic bags resulted in an eye-popping 555 to 2,498 microplastic particles per cup, while the loose-leaf tea only had .3 to 2.4 particles per cup.The microplastics in loose-leaf tea were a mix of materials, likely picked up through environmental contamination or processing, researchers say.

In contrast, those identified in plastic-bagged tea were exclusively polyamide fibers — the same material used to make the bags themselves — pointing directly to their source.“Upon contact with hot water, tea bags cease to function as inert packaging materials and instead transform into active sources of contamination, releasing thousands of microplastics and endocrine-disrupting chemicals per cup,” the authors wrote this month in npj Science of Food.Counting the particles wasn’t enough — researchers needed to see which chemicals were leaching into the water.They measured BPA, which has been shown to mess with endocrine function and impair heart activity, and phthalates, linked to endocrine disruption and potentially cancer....