Drinking Hot Beverages in Disposable Paper Cups May Expose You to Microplastics

To cut down on the waste, the Indian government banned single-use plastic last year. Following the ban, people turned to paper cups and glasses to drink tea and juices. According to an IMARC Group report, a record 22 billion disposable paper cups are used for drinking hot beverages in the country in a year. 

However, recently a message on social media is going viral with the claim that the paper cups are harmful for hot drinks like tea and coffee as these plastic-coated disposable paper cup releases tiny plastic particles, harmful ions and heavy metals into the liquid. 

To test the harmful effects of the paper cups, the researchers at Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur carried out a study. The team poured hot water into paper cups and found that the ‘exposure to hot liquid for 15 minutes makes plastic-coated disposable paper cups release 25,000 tiny plastic particles, harmful ions and heavy metals into the liquid.’

During their study,the researchers found out that when 70-80 degrees of hot liquid was poured into a 100 ml paper cup, the coated 'microplastic' layer melted and mixed with the liquids within 15 minutes and when the contaminated beverage was examined using a fluorescence microscope, they noticed that 25,000 micro plastic particles were found in the hot liquid including plastic ions, zinc, manganese, nickel, copper, lead, cadmium, chromium and palladium.

“The ions such as fluoride, chloride, nitrate and sulfate, and toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium and arsenic in the water samples,” said Tim Gray, Health Optimising Biohacker, who quoted the IIT study in his Instagram post. 

As per the report, a person who is drinking three cups of tea or coffee daily in a paper cup would be exposing himself to 75,000 tiny microplastic particles. 
 

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