http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326215100.htm

Drinking Very Hot Tea Can Increase The Risk Of Throat Cancer

Source:

BMJ-British Medical Journal

Summary:

People are advised to wait a few minutes before drinking a cup of freshly-boiled tea today as a new study finds that drinking very hot tea (70 degrees C or more) can increase the risk of cancer of the œsophagus, the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.

People are advised to wait a few minutes before drinking a cup of freshly-boiled tea today as a new study, published on the British Medical Journal website, finds that drinking very hot tea (70°C or more) can increase the risk of cancer of the œophagus, the muscular tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.

The study was carried out in northern Iran, where large amounts of hot tea are drunk every day.

Cancers of the œsophagus kill more than 500,000 people worldwide each year and œsophagæl squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the commonest type. In Europe and America, it is mainly caused by tobacco and alcohol use and is more common in men than in women, but drinking hot beverages is also thought to be a risk factor.

Golestan Province in northern Iran has one of the highest rates of OSCC in the world, but rates of smoking and alcohol consumption are low and women are as likely to have a diagnosis as men. Tea drinking, however, is widespread, so researchers set out to investigate a possible link between tea drinking habits and risk of OSCC.

They studied tea drinking habits among 300 people diagnosed with OSCC and a matched group of 571 healthy controls from the same area. Nearly all participants drank black tea regularly, with an average volume consumed of over one litre a day.

Compared with drinking warm or lukewarm tea (65°C or less), drinking hot tea (65-69°C) was associated with twice the risk of oesophageal cancer, and drinking very hot tea (70°C or more) was associated with eight-fold increased risk.

Likewise, compared with drinking tea four or more minutes after being poured, drinking tea less than two minutes after pouring was associated with a five-fold higher risk.

There was no association between the amount of tea consumed and risk of cancer.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2515564&forum_id=2#25184427)