Very Hot Drinks Are Probably Carcinogenic, Study Finds (VIDEO)

The temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, appears to be responsible for an increased risk of esophageal cancer.

AsianScientist (Jun. 21, 2016) – An international Working Group of 23 scientists convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), has found that drinking very hot beverages probably causes cancer of the esophagus in humans.

Drinking very hot beverages was classified under Group 2A, or probably carcinogenic to humans. A summary of the final evaluations was published in The Lancet Oncology, and the detailed assessments will be published as Volume 116 of the IARC Monographs.

“These results suggest that drinking very hot beverages is one probable cause of esophageal cancer and that it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible,” said Dr. Christopher Wild, director of the IARC.

Studies in places such as China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, and South America where tea or maté is traditionally drunk very hot—at about 70°C—found that the risk of esophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk. In experiments involving animals, however, there was limited evidence for the carcinogenicity of very hot water.

“Smoking and alcohol drinking are major causes of esophageal cancer, particularly in many high-income countries,” said Wild.

“However, the majority of esophageal cancers occur in parts of Asia, South America, and East Africa, where regularly drinking very hot beverages is common and where the reasons for the high incidence of this cancer are not as well understood.”

Drinking coffee was put in Group 3, not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans. Coffee was previously classified as Group 2B, or possibly carcinogenic to humans, by the IARC in 1991. After thoroughly reviewing more than 1,000 studies in humans and animals, the Working Group found that there was inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking overall.


The article can be found at: Loomis et al. (2016) Carcinogenicity of Drinking Coffee, Mate, and Very Hot Beverages.

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Source: International Agency for Research on Cancer; Photo: Pixabay.
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