研究:茶包会释放出微小的塑料颗粒

研究:茶包会释放出微小的塑料颗粒

Scientists have made a discovery about tea bags that is going to make any Earl Grey drinker retch — plastic bags of tea release billions of tiny plastic particles into every cup.

科学家们已经发现了一种可以让任何一个喝伯爵茶的人都能喝到的袋装茶，这种袋装茶在每个杯子里都会释放出数十亿个微小的塑料颗粒。

A study conducted by a team of Canadian researchers and published Wednesday in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science and Technology revealed that steeping a single plastic tea bag at brewing temperature — 203 degrees Fahrenheit — releases about 11.6 billion minuscule particles known as “microplastics” and 3.1 billion “nanoplastics” into each cup.

加拿大一个研究小组进行的一项研究，周三发表在美国化学学会的《环境科学与技术》杂志上，结果显示，在酿造温度-203华氏度下浸泡一个塑料茶包，会释放出约116亿微克。被称为“微塑料”和31亿“纳米塑料”的颗粒进入每个杯子。

Researchers compared the composition of the particles to the original plastic tea bags, and it was a match.

研究人员将这些颗粒物的成分与原来的塑料茶包进行了比较，结果发现两者是吻合的。

“We think that it is a lot when compared to other foods that contain microplastics,” one of the researchers, Nathalie Tufenkji at McGill University in Quebec, told The New Scientist. “Table salt, which has a relatively high microplastic content, has been reported to contain approximately 0.005 micrograms plastic per gram salt. A cup of tea contains thousands of times greater mass of plastic, at 16 micrograms per cup.”

魁北克麦吉尔大学的Nathalie Tufenkji是研究人员之一，她在接受《新科学家》杂志采访时表示:“我们认为与其他含有微塑料的食物相比，它的含量要高得多。”“食盐的微塑料含量相对较高，据报道，每克食盐中大约含有0.005微克塑料。而一杯茶所含的塑料量是一杯盐的数千倍，每杯16微克。”

The team bought four different tea bags from shops and cafes in Montreal, sliced them open and emptied them before steeping them in the hot water and analyzing them using electron microscopes and other technology.

研究小组从蒙特利尔的商店和咖啡馆购买了四种不同的茶叶袋，将它们切成薄片，倒空后浸泡在热水中，并使用电子显微镜和其他技术进行分析。

A control group of uncut tea bags was also used to confirm that the tea bags were causing the plastics to be released — not the tea itself.

一组未切割的茶包也被用来确认是茶包导致塑料释放，而不是茶本身。

Researchers also exposed water fleas — a type of microscopic crustacean — to the tea bags and found that the particles caused “significant behavioral effects and developmental malformations,” Tufenkji told the outlet.

Tufenkji告诉记者，研究人员还将水蚤(一种微小的甲壳类动物)暴露在茶叶袋中，发现这些颗粒物造成了“显著的行为影响和发育畸形”。

None of the fleas died, she said.

她说，没有一只水蚤死亡。

More research is needed to determine the kind of impact the particles will have on humans, the researcher added. For now, she told the New Scientist, it’s best to avoid plastic tea bags and seek out other options.

研究人员补充说，还需要更多的研究来确定粒子对人类的影响。目前，她告诉《新科学家》杂志，最好避免使用塑料茶包，寻找其他选择。

“Tea can be purchased in paper tea bags or as loose-leaf tea, which eliminates the need for this single-use plastic packaging,” she said.

她说：“可以购买纸袋或活叶茶的茶叶，这样就不需要这种一次性塑料包装了。”