Tea drinkers ingest BILLIONS of plastic microparticles every time they have a cuppa

TEA drinkers could be unknowingly drinking billions of plastic particles as a new study revealed teabags could be contaminating our cuppas.

Research from the McGill University, in Canada, examined how many doses of microplastics were released by teabags when put into water.

Professor of Chemical Engineering, Nathalie Tufenkji, led the study, as tea manufacturers move away from traditional paper bags and towards plastic ones.

The findings, published in the , revealed the teabags were leaking billions of plastic particles into every cup.

They found a single teabag released 11 billion microplastics and three billion nanoplastics into each brew.

The levels recorded are thousands of times higher than the rates found in other foods.

Dr Tufenkji told : “We were very, very surprised.

“We thought [it’d] maybe release a couple of hundred particles, maybe a few thousand.

“So we were really shocked when we saw they’re releasing billions of particles into a cup of tea.”

We were very, very surprised

Dr Nathalie Tufenkji

Dr Tufenkji said she decided conduct the research after having a cup of tea made with a plastic teabag, and realising the boiling hot water may be breaking down the materials.

Her team tested five different teabag brands, and found two types of plastic left behind, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon.

Dr Tufenkji added: “My personal recommendation is to avoid using plastic teabags.”

Meanwhile this mum was praised for ditching plastic bags on her weekly shop.

And here are six brilliant hacks to cut down on your plastic beauty packaging.

Plus this cleaning blogger has claimed putting teabags in your shoes stops bad smells.