Let hot drinks cool down before drinking; avoid tea, soup, and coffee that are piping hot
In a study from a high-incidence area of Iran, very hot tea was associated with about 8 times the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a type of esophageal cancer, compared with warm tea. Even “hot” tea was associated with about twice the risk. Drinking within two minutes of pouring was associated with about 5 times the risk of waiting at least four minutes.
There’s no monetary cost — you just need to wait two to th…
In northern Iran, in an area with high esophageal cancer incidence, 300 patients were compared with 571 people…
There’s no monetary cost — you just need to wait two to three extra minutes each time. The hard part is resisting the urge to drink them when you’re craving them.
In northern Iran, in an area with high esophageal cancer incidence, 300 patients were compared with 571 people without the disease. Compared with warm-tea drinkers, the odds ratio for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was about 2.07 for “hot” tea (95% CI 1.28–3.35) and 8.16 for “very hot” tea (3.93–16.9). Comparing drinking within two minutes of pouring with waiting at least four minutes, the odds ratio was about 5.41 (2.63–11.1). This cancer is a rare outcome, so odds ratios are close to relative risks.
Islami F, Pourshams A, Nasrollahzadeh D, et al. (2009). Tea drinking habits and oesophageal cancer in a high risk area in northern Iran: population based case-control study. BMJ, 338, b929. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b929；Loomis D, Guyton KZ, Grosse Y, et al. (2016). Carcinogenicity of drinking coffee, mate, and very hot beverages. Lancet Oncology, 17(7), 877-878. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30239-X；Yu C, Tang H, Guo Y, et al. (2018). Hot tea consumption and its interactions with alcohol and tobacco use on the risk for esophageal cancer: a population-based cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(7), 489-497. https://doi.org/10.7326/M17-2000
Open source linkThe International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies beverages above 65 °C as Group 2A, meaning they are probably carcinogenic. The same assessment determined that coffee itself is not carcinogenic. A domestic study in China followed 456,000 people, with a median of 9.2 years. People who drink very hot tea and consume more than 15 grams of alcohol daily have the highest risk of esophageal cancer. Compared with people who rarely drink tea and consume less than 15 grams of alcohol daily, their hazard ratio is 5.00 (HR 5.00, 3.64–6.88). For those who smoke and drink hot tea daily, the risk ratio is 2.03 (1.55–2.67). The authors' conclusion is that the risk of esophageal cancer is higher when hot tea is combined with excessive alcohol consumption or smoking. Site note: IARC classified coffee drinking as Group 3: the evidence was insufficient to classify its carcinogenicity in humans. This does not mean that it has been proven non-carcinogenic or safe. Source