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Are there DBPs in that cup of tea? (Chlorine from tap water reacts with tea)
Science Daily / American Chemical Society / Environmental Science & Technology ^ | Sept. 15, 2021 | Jiafu Li, Md. Tareq Aziz, Caroline O. Granger, Susan D. Richardson.

Posted on 09/18/2021 9:59:17 AM PDT by ConservativeMind

Surpassed only by water, tea is the second most consumed beverage worldwide. When boiled tap water is used to brew tea, residual chlorine in the water can react with tea compounds to form disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Researchers measured 60 DBPs in three types of tea, unexpectedly finding lower levels in brewed tea than in tap water. However, they also detected many unknown DBPs with uncertain health effects.

Although disinfection is important to ensure drinking water safety, a downside is DBP formation. Tea contains about 500 compounds, including polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine and others, that can react with chlorine to form DBPs, some of which have been linked in epidemiological studies with cancer and adverse birth outcomes. In addition, DBPs can form from reactions with compounds in the tap water itself. Susan Richardson and colleagues wanted to conduct a comprehensive survey to measure 60 known DBPs in three green and black teas popular in the U.S.

The researchers brewed the teas and then measured the compounds using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Levels of the 60 DBPs were higher in tap water than in the brewed teas, likely because many compounds evaporated or were absorbed by tea leaves. However, the 60 known DBPs comprised only 4% of the total organic halogen in tea, indicating that the majority of these compounds in tea are uncharacterized. The team identified 15 of these compounds -- which likely form from the reaction of chlorine with natural phenolic and polyphenolic precursors in tea leaves -- for the first time in the beverage. Although no "safe" levels have yet been established for most DBPs, for the ones that are regulated, an average person would need to drink 18-55 cups of tea per day to exceed the limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers say.

(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
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It may require a lot of tea to surpass the level of concern, but using filtered water for brewing would appear to be incrementally better.
1 posted on 09/18/2021 9:59:17 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: ConservativeMind
It may require a lot of tea to surpass the level of concern, but using filtered water for brewing would appear to be incrementally better.

I drink a lot of tea and herbal teas. I get my water from my well.

2 posted on 09/18/2021 10:05:16 AM PDT by Wissa (Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. -- Albert Einstein)
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To: ConservativeMind

I saw Miley with a BB gun looking for right wing extremists


3 posted on 09/18/2021 10:05:25 AM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: NWFree

Sorry


4 posted on 09/18/2021 10:05:48 AM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: ConservativeMind

People eventually die from drinking water.


5 posted on 09/18/2021 10:08:50 AM PDT by SkyDancer (How Can I Ask For Forgiveness If I Won't Forgive Others?)
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To: Wissa

Well water eliminates your issue.

I grew up on well water.


6 posted on 09/18/2021 10:08:54 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

I use spring water for my tea and I don’t boil it! I do buy British tea. Pretty snobby but so much better than any other I’ve tried. I drink green tea too.


7 posted on 09/18/2021 10:09:33 AM PDT by grame (May you know more of the love of God Almighty this day!)
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To: ConservativeMind

I find that using water containing Chlorine and/or Floride to brew tea makes it unpalatable anyway.


8 posted on 09/18/2021 10:18:50 AM PDT by Mr Radical (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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To: grame

there used to be a tea...Nabob tea....best in the world.....Kraft bought the company and discontinued this tea....figures...


9 posted on 09/18/2021 10:21:11 AM PDT by cherry
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To: ConservativeMind

If you are drinking water from the tap you are poisoning yourself. We filter every drop we consume through a Berkey water filter. It takes out everything. Best $215 we ever spent.


10 posted on 09/18/2021 10:23:36 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: ConservativeMind
Well water eliminates your issue.

It also eliminates the problem of breathing in chlorine vapors when I take a shower, and I'd expect that to be a bigger health issue for people than what chlorine doesn't boil off from the water that they use when they make tea.

11 posted on 09/18/2021 10:24:43 AM PDT by Wissa (Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. -- Albert Einstein)
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To: ConservativeMind

are these bad things measured n PPT - parts per trillion?

Drink untreated water in the field, see what happens...


12 posted on 09/18/2021 10:27:12 AM PDT by ASOC (This space for rent)
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To: Mr Radical
I have to agree with you about the flavor of the water influencing the flavor of the brewed tea. I grew up on well water, though, so I felt I had to filter the water from almost any city I've lived in.

One year I decided to review the water testing results the city was required to post and I noticed they were over the limit for chloramine. It made me call them to register a complaint, as the water came from wells and not a lake, so no algal blooms needed to be corrected.

I believe it had been an accidental excessive increase for a period of time.

13 posted on 09/18/2021 10:28:29 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ASOC

I, and all of my neighbors for many miles drank “untreated water” from wells, and our water all checked out with the occasional testing (aside from an occasion or two with higher nitrites from fertilizer used in the fields, I believe).


14 posted on 09/18/2021 10:30:53 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: NWFree

Why sorry? it’s not your fault the chlorine reacted with the tea to give you hallucinations. You didn’t know.


15 posted on 09/18/2021 10:33:20 AM PDT by BipolarBob ("We the people" needs to be re-read, not reinterpreted.)
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To: Wissa

To paraphrase Hugo Chavez, does it smell like the Devil was just standing here?

(sulfur smell)


16 posted on 09/18/2021 10:35:46 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: BipolarBob

It’s always something!


17 posted on 09/18/2021 10:36:12 AM PDT by refermech
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I only drink grain alcohol and rain water. Fluoridating the water is a Communist conspiracy trying to rub us of our precious bodily fluids.


18 posted on 09/18/2021 10:38:14 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: EEGator
To paraphrase Hugo Chavez, does it smell like the Devil was just standing here? (sulfur smell)

Not at all.

19 posted on 09/18/2021 10:38:55 AM PDT by Wissa (The Gods of the Copybook Headings shall return.)
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To: Wissa

Maybe it’s location, but down in FL outside of Jax, my friends water smelled like sulfur...


20 posted on 09/18/2021 10:40:48 AM PDT by EEGator
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