- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/52242140
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This study is unscientific garbage and should be retracted.
Their “simulation” of making tea involved 300 teabags boiled in 600ml of water at 95 C while being stirred at 750rpm for an unspecified amount of time. They then took counts using undiluted samples of that liquid.
It isn’t clear why they chose such an absurd methodology, but it is absolutely spurious to draw conclusions from this about teabags used under normal conditions.
Are plastic teabags an American thing? Most Canadian and british tea come in paper bags… wish there was more information in this article its so vague.
I can’t remember the brand, but yeah. Plastic teabags are a thing and not just in the US.
They’re wierd little triangle nets.
But no worries. If you drink proper tea, you’ll never encounter them.
Yorkshire Tea use compostable tea bags. I think most of the other big UK brands do as well but you should only be drinking Yorkshire.
When we’re talking about molecules, millions is usually an extreme understatement. PPB (parts per billion) is a common measure for contaminants.
But PPB is still an enormous quantity. Remember Avogadro’s number (used to relate count to grams) is on the 10^23 scale (aka thousands of billions of trillions). Even 999 million is a drop in the ocean there.
EDIT: The journal abstract lists the leached nanoparticles as 10^9 (trillions) per mL, and the uptake by human-derived intestine cells as 100 micrograms/mL. So yeah this is coverage by a journalist who can’t math.
so that’s why i prefer the flavor of big brand tea bags…
What do you mean plastic mesh heated to near boiling temperatures causes a release of microscopic plastic particles? That just doesn’t make any sense at all!
polymer-based commercial tea bags
This is important. Tea bags can be made from a variety of materials, in Europe that’s usually plant matter. So literally keep calm and drink tea.
The filter paper used to produce teabags with a string and tag attached does not need to contain plastic polymer fibres: these teabags close by folding, and are secured by stitching or stapling, rather than by heat sealing.
However, many teabag producers (including organic brands) still choose to use paper with plastic (polypropylene) fibres to add strength to their teabags.
I’ve never even seen polymer based tea bags.
Where would they sell that crap? Lemme guess?
Or, buy loose leaf and use a strainer - steel if you think you can’t tell the difference (like me), or ceramic if you think you can. It’s more economical, too.
I don’t have easy access to loose-leaf tea, unfortunately.
Also, this is not specifically directed at you but it’s on my mind lately: loose-leaf tea is more effort than tea bags. This is not a big deal for healthy people but please don’t shame chronically ill people for using tea bags.
(This comment was eaten on my first attempt, sorry if it shows up twice)
I don’t have easy access to loose-leaf tea, unfortunately.
As in, you can’t easily buy it, or that it’s literally hard for you to access?
My wife likes Earl Gray, but it’s caffeine sensitive, and she’s very picky about taste. So she gets hers via mail order; if the issue is sourcing, then the web is your friend.
Also, this is not specifically directed at you but it’s on my mind lately: loose-leaf tea is more effort than tea bags.
This is interesting. Sincerely: how? I’m walking through the process in my head, and it seems to me it’d be harder getting the little bags out of their packaging and manipulating them.
Our process is:
- Pop the lid on the tea container (must be similar in difficulty to getting into a box of canister of bags, right?)
- Scoop a scoop with a spoon into e.g. a Teavana tea maker (or the million similar products). I can see how manipulating a spoon can be a challenge itself, but is it harder than digging around in a container for a tea bag?
- Pouring water’s the same process, either way
- When it’s steeped, put it on the cup and it dispenses itself. Again, fussing around with a tea bag to pull it out of a cup seems like it’d require more fine motor control and be more challenging
I’m sincerely curious since I’m ignorant about the details of how tea bags would be easier, and I’d like to learn. Every person has different obstacles, and I know you don’t speak for everyone; also, this is just curiosity on my part, so if you’re not interested in explaining, no problem.
Wall of text incoming, sorry, I get anxious trying to explain myself and I ramble 😅
My specific situation is that I have serious trouble organising myself (planning and acting on plans) due to mental health and I am chronically exhausted. I’m on disability because of these and some other issues.
I can’t find affordable loose-leaf tea in any store nearby. Ordering something I need regularly online is difficult because I need to remember that I need to do it and then also do it. I know it sounds weird to someone who doesn’t have that problem but it’s just far easier to just go to one supermarket, once a week, and get all the stuff that I’m going to need (and even that isn’t easy when you’re exhausted simply from existing). Add to that decision fatigue where I get thoroughly overwhelmed by the sheer number of options when online shopping - I actually like having just a handful of options because it makes deciding a lot less exhausting. (I also wouldn’t know where to get affordable tea online that isn’t amazon and I’m trying to avoid that but that’s a different topic)
It’s not the manipulation of tea bags that’s difficult for me, I fortunately don’t have problems using my hands other than being clumsy because I don’t pay attention.
Tea bags:
- get tea bags
- put tea bags in thermos
- pour water in thermos
- throw tea bags out
- drink tea
- wash cup
- done
I do actually own a tea infuser ball and a reusable tea bag and there’s more steps involved, including having to clean them. I used each a couple of times and then I just couldn’t do it anymore because the thought of going through these steps was overwhelming.
- measure out tea
- try not to spill half the tea all over the counter causing more work (!)
- put tea bag in thermos
- pour water in thermos
- take out tea bag
- clean tea leaves out of tea bag, thoroughly, because tea leaves cling to the bag
- clean the bag of tea residue
- hang bag up to dry
What ends up happening is that I just want to drink my tea and even the maybe 5 minutes it would take to clean the thing are too much. So I leave the used tea bag lying somewhere, I forget that I have to clean it, and it takes me days to remember - worst case scenario is the tea starts getting mouldy in the bag. Even if I remember, I can’t work up the energy to clean the thing so I postpone it (and don’t drink tea in the meantime).
Sidenote: I have a Huel subscription because if that package didn’t arrive like magic on my doorstep every two months, I regularly wouldn’t eat anything but toast for days because everything else is more than two steps and thus too much.
I know it’s not like anyone is asking me to run a marathon and I feel silly just typing all this. I’m the first person in line to chastise myself because I just have to pull myself together a bit and stop being lazy and get over myself and I have the hardest time accepting that I am ill. If tea bags ceased to exist tomorrow, I suppose I could deal. As it is, they are a small thing making one small act a little easier, adding to a bunch of other small things that are inconsequential on their own but make small acts a little easier so I can feel like half a person.
For chronically ill tea lovers (myself included), there are also a variety of options! Cut open the tea bag and pour into a strainer, buy a teapot with integrated strainer (they’re all over thrift stores if money is an issue), buy reusable tea bags and fill them on a free day, buy tea brands that use safe tea bags, or skip the strainer and enjoy your tea with the dregs in. I also have a twist open tea strainer which is easier on my hands than the ones with a spring in them. But if all else fails, continue to drink and enjoy whatever tea works for you!
The integrated tea cups are some of my favorites. I have a beautiful one where you dump in the tea and just lift the integrated strainer out when it’s done.
