Research from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain found that individual tea bags steeped in boiling water can release billions of micro- and nanoplastic particles. Here's what to know.
Three teabag types were purchased online (Amazon and AliExpress) or in a local supermarket. The online-purchased teabags were ordered empty (with no tea inside) and with a known polymer composition
The third teabag type (sample 3), bought in the supermarket, was a regular tea brand of green tea
300 teabags were transferred into a 1 L beaker (pre-washed and sterilized) containing 600 mL of Milli-Q water at 95 ◦C with constant stirring (750 rpm).
It sounds like they were using a magnetic stir bar rather than a spoon or rod but still, 300 teabags, most of which coming empty from Amazon or AliExpress in 600ml is ridiculous.
I had trouble believing you at first so I hunted down the study https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653524026377?via=ihub to verify. You’re completely right!
It sounds like they were using a magnetic stir bar rather than a spoon or rod but still, 300 teabags, most of which coming empty from Amazon or AliExpress in 600ml is ridiculous.
It’s almost too absurd to believe.
There’s a conversation to be had about microplastic contamination, but this study feels and sounds like bad faith argument.