Drinking hot tea, coffee increases risk of throat cancer by 90%, scientists warn

Though tea and coffee feel good to drink when hot, new research has warned that drinking piping hot cups of tea or coffee can double the risk of throat cancer.

A team from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences has discovered that very hot water damages the lining of the mouth, throat and oesophagus, leading to tumors and cancers.

The study was conducted on over 50,000 people aged between 40 and 75. They found that those who drank their cup of tea at a temperature of 60° were 90% more likely to be struck down. The figure rose to 2.4 times among those who regularly drank it at 75°C, as per Mirror.

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Lead author Farhad Islami said, “Many people enjoy drinking tea, coffee, or other hot beverages. However, according to our report, drinking very hot tea can increase the risk of oesophageal cancer, and it is therefore advisable to wait until hot beverages cool down before drinking.”

According to the researchers, the findings, published in the International Journal of Cancer, are based on team but are also applied to other hot beverages including coffee or hot chocolate, reported Daily Mail.

Oesophageal cancer is among the eighth most common cause of cancer globally and one of the main causes of cancer death. The study was conducted for a long time, and during the follow-up period from 2004 to 2017, over 300 new cases of this cancer were identified.

The researchers explained that the results ‘substantially strengthen’ the existing evidence between hot drinks and oesophageal cancer. They said that drinking hot beverages can injure the oesophagus leading to inflammation, which could then damage DNA and fuel production of carcinogenic chemicals. Also, it could impair its ability to protect against harmful toxins from alcohol and smoking.

Islami said, “To our knowledge, this is the only large-scale prospective study in the world in which actual tea drinking temperature has been measured by trained staff. It may thus be a reasonable public-health measure to extrapolate these results to all types of beverages, and to advise the public to wait for beverages to cool to under 60°C before consumption.”