Could drinking hot tea lead to esophageal cancer?
The answer is maybe.
Researchers studied more than 450,000 Chinese adults who drank hot tea and found that tea drinkers who engaged in other risky behaviors had a higher chance of developing throat cancer.
According to the research, tea drinkers who had more than one daily alcoholic drink (glass of wine, 12 ounces of beer or 1.5 ounces of liquor) had a 12 percent more chance of getting cancer.
Tea drinkers who smoked increased their chances by 56 percent.
And the chance of getting cancer by people who did all three went up five fold.
There was no increase in risk for those who only drank hot tea and did not smoke and/or drink.
The study was based on patient reports and the researchers did not take in account the temperature of the tea.