Share to ClassroomStudy Links Hot Drinks to Cancer
People who drink their tea and coffee very hot are more likely to get cancer of the food pipe, a new study says. Researchers at the University of Oxford followed almost 980,000 British adults for more than ten years. People who liked their drinks "very hot" were more than three times as likely to get this cancer as people who drank them warm. Drinking more than six hot drinks a day raised the risk by 71 per cent compared with drinking none, even if the drinks were not very hot.
Scientists call a drink "very hot" at 65 degrees Celsius or hotter. Doctors think the heat hurts the cells in the food pipe. Tea from a boiled kettle is nearly 100 degrees, and about 90 degrees in the cup. A little milk does not cool it much. The team did not measure the real temperature. They asked people how hot they liked their drinks.
The study says about 14 per cent of British cases could be stopped if people let drinks cool first. About 9,500 people in the United Kingdom get this cancer each year and 7,900 die. Cancer Research UK said the risk is still quite low. It told people to wait until a cup is comfortable. One expert warned that the study shows a link, not proof.
