It is hard to imagine life without plastic. Plastics are everywhere - and are key to much of our modern world. Many aspects of medicine, electronics, aerospace, food processing, toys and entertainment would be impossible without plastic. We are being exposed to a growing number of toxic chemicals every day - the production of plastics is on the rise, and will triple by 2060.
Plastics are created from a hydrocarbon backbone of fossil fuels of coal, oil and natural gas. The hydrocarbons are fitted together to form polymers onto which chemists then add thousands of additional compounds that change the properties of the emerging plastic. For example, adding phthalates to the polymer makes make the plastic bendy and flexible (think of squishy stress balls), adding BPA makes plastic harder and shatterproof, while adding a PFAS will make a plastic flame resistant.
Unfortunately, these advances in chemistry and coming at a real cost to human health. Exposure to plastic to these toxins are contributing to the epidemic of chronic disease.
The Minderoo-Monaco Commision published their findings in 2023. Their summary is worth quoting in full just to get a sense for the variety of ways that exposure to plastic can harm human health and well being.
Coal miners, oil workers and gas field workers who extract fossil carbon feedstocks for plastic production suffer increased mortality from traumatic injury, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, silicosis, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. Plastic production workers are at increased risk of leukemia, lymphoma, hepatic angiosarcoma, brain cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, neurotoxic injury, and decreased fertility. Workers producing plastic textiles die of bladder cancer, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and interstitial lung disease at increased rates. Plastic recycling workers have increased rates of cardiovascular disease, toxic metal poisoning, neuropathy, and lung cancer.
Residents of “fenceline” communities adjacent to plastic production and waste disposal sites experience increased risks of premature birth, low birth weight, asthma, childhood leukemia, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lung cancer. During use and also in disposal, plastics release toxic chemicals including additives and residual monomers into the environment and into people. National biomonitoring surveys in the USA document population-wide exposures to these chemicals. Plastic additives disrupt endocrine function and increase risk for premature births, neurodevelopmental disorders, male reproductive birth defects, infertility, obesity, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, and cancers. Chemical-laden MNPs formed through the environmental degradation of plastic waste can enter living organisms, including humans. Emerging, albeit still incomplete, evidence indicates that MNPs may cause toxicity due to their physical and toxicological effects as well as by acting as vectors that transport toxic chemicals and bacterial pathogens into tissues and cells.
Infants in the womb and young children are two populations at particularly high risk of plastic-related health effects. Because of the exquisite sensitivity of early development to hazardous chemicals and children’s unique patterns of exposure, plastic-associated exposures are linked to increased risks of prematurity, stillbirth, low birth weight, birth defects of the reproductive organs, neurodevelopmental impairment, impaired lung growth, and childhood cancer. Early-life exposures to plastic-associated chemicals also increase the risk of multiple non-communicable diseases later in life.
Knowing this, it is clear that we should reduce our exposure to these toxic compounds as much as possible. We want to look for the ways in which simple changes to our every day life that can reduce our toxic burden so that we can live longer and healthier lives.
Let’s talk about tea.
Hidden Sources of Phthalates: Tea
I love tea.
As in, it is not unusual for me to drink 5 cups of green tea in a day. So when I read a study that pointed out that the very high amounts of phthalates can be found in tea I was concerned. I did some digging and found a dirty little secret that is hiding in plain sight - most tea bags are made with various plastics.
Until this time, I hadn’t given much thought at all to what actually tea bags were made of. I assumed they were just made of some form of paper. But if the bag is paper - wouldn’t it simply dissolve when placed in hot water?
The reason that most tea bags do not dissolve is that those small bags contain a lot of plastic, from the plastic that keeps the bag itself from dissolving to the plastic used to glue the bag together. When tea bags are placed in hot water, these toxic compounds leech into your tea.
As a result, it doesn't matter if your favorite tea is organic or fair trade, if you are using tea bags, then you are very likely being exposed to a variety of harmful components. These include phthalates and several other forms of plastic.
Here are some of the things that I learned from the scientific literature:
“High phthalate concentrations in the Persian and German teabag samples were detected with average levels of 2.87 and 2.37 mg/g (4.76 and 3.93 mg/L), respectively.”
“The most prominent phthalate congeners in teabag samples were diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) and diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP)... DEHP showed cancer risk for children and adults. The findings of this research indicated that high microplastics and phthalate levels are released from teabags into tea drinks.”
“…each cup of tea produced by one plastic tea bag steeped at brewing temperature included roughly 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics.”
Unfortunately, the problem with tea doesn’t end with the bags. In May 2024, the FDA announced a recall of almost a million tea bags due to pesticide contamination. Making things worse is the fact that the herbal tea was organic, non-GMO.
We live in a world where exposure to toxic compounds are unavoidable. Happily, knowledge is power because we can find common sources of toxic exposure and minimize them. So how can we reduce the amount of plastic we are exposed to when enjoying tea?
There are a variety of inexpensive glass teapots with strainers available where you can easily brew fresher and plastic free tea. Other options are stainless steel tea balls or cotton tea bags.
Switching from tea bags has really allowed me to upgrade my tea game. I am now drinking a larger variety of loose leaf teas that are freshly brewed, taste better, and most importantly, plastic free.
If you would like help detoxifying, I'm here to help. Do you need more information, or are you ready to get started?
REFERENCES
Landrigan PJ, Raps H, Cropper M, Bald C, Brunner M, Canonizado EM, Charles D, Chiles TC, Donohue MJ, Enck J, Fenichel P, Fleming LE, Ferrier-Pages C, Fordham R, Gozt A, Griffin C, Hahn ME, Haryanto B, Hixson R, Ianelli H, James BD, Kumar P, Laborde A, Law KL, Martin K, Mu J, Mulders Y, Mustapha A, Niu J, Pahl S, Park Y, Pedrotti M-L, Pitt JA, Ruchirawat M, Seewoo BJ, Spring M, Stegeman JJ, Suk W, Symeonides C, Takada H, Thompson RC, Vicini A, Wang Z, Whitman E, Wirth D, Wolff M, Yousuf AK, Dunlop S. The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health. Annals of Global Health. 2023; 89(1): 23, 1–215. DOI: https://doi. org/10.5334/aogh.4056
Kashfi FS, Mohammadi A, Rostami F, et al. Microplastics and phthalate esters release from teabags into tea drink: occurrence, human exposure, and health risks. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023;30(47):104209-104222. doi:10.1007/s11356-023-29726-9
Hernandez LM, Xu EG, Larsson HCE, Tahara R, Maisuria VB, Tufenkji N. Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea. Environ Sci Technol. 2019;53(21):12300-12310. doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b02540