BREAKING: Your Tea Bags May Be Releasing Millions of Microplastics

A groundbreaking study by UAB researchers reveals that plastic-based commercial tea bags release staggering amounts of nanoplastics and microplastics when steeped—and these tiny particles can be absorbed by human intestinal cells, potentially entering the bloodstream and spreading throughout the body.

Why It Matters:
Plastic pollution isn’t just an environmental crisis—it’s a growing threat to human health. Food packaging, including tea bags, is a major source of micro- and nanoplastic (MNPL) contamination, with ingestion being a primary exposure route.

Key Findings:

• Tea bags made of nylon-6, polypropylene, and cellulose release millions to billions of plastic particles per milliliter when brewed.

• Polypropylene tea bags shed the most: 1.2 billion particles per mL, averaging 136.7 nanometers in size.

• Advanced imaging confirmed these particles can infiltrate human intestinal cells—even reaching the cell nucleus.

The Bigger Picture:
This study, published in Chemosphere, is the first to demonstrate how these plastics interact with human cells, raising urgent questions about long-term health effects.

What’s Next?
Researchers stress the need for:
✔ Standardized testing for plastic food packaging.
✔ Stronger regulations to reduce contamination.
✔ More studies on chronic exposure risks.

Final Thought:
As plastic use in food packaging grows, so does the need to prioritize safety. Your daily tea ritual might come with an invisible cost—time to rethink how we package our food.

Reference:

Gooya Banaei et al, Teabag-derived micro/nanoplastics (true-to-life MNPLs) as a surrogate for real-life exposure scenarios, Chemosphere (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143736