Smoking tea lovers?- Soleil Singh

Watch out! Recent researchers have found a new drink leading to health “problems”, or so we think. If you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol daily, you may want to consider letting your tea cool before you enjoy it. Drinking tea while it's too hot could increase your risk of esophageal cancer, a new study suggests. In the study, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea was associated with a two- to fivefold increase in esophageal cancer, but only in people who also smoked or drank alcohol.  Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world and is often fatal, killing approximately 400,000 people every year, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is usually caused by repeated injury to the esophagus due to smoke, alcohol, acid reflux and maybe- hot liquids. The study, the largest of its kind, followed close to 500,000 adults in China over an average of 9½ years. Because of the large size, it may set the bar for years to come, according to Neal Freedman, senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who was not involved in the new research.  They took a test and, participants who drank tea on a weekly basis were asked to describe its temperature as "warm," "hot" "or "burning hot." Drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea was not, by itself, a predictor of esophageal cancer, which is good news for tea fans. However, for people who smoked tobacco or drank alcohol -- both of which are known to cause esophageal cancer -drinking "hot" or "burning hot" tea made their risk of cancer even higher, according to Jun Lv, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Peking University.  "Drinking hot tea contributed to cancer only when it clustered with smoking occasionally." My opinion on it is what another reviewer quoted. “Tea is probably one of the most studied food and beverages in the world today," Goggi said. "Green tea has been shown to be a little more effective in cancer inhibition versus black tea, but black tea has been more effective in cardiovascular health.” So although, I agree, I believe there is nothing to worry about… for now.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/health/hot-tea-esophageal-cancer-risk-study/index.html