Tea is one of the most popular beverages in the world, which is enjoyed by billions every day for its comfort and fresh qualities. However, new research suggests that your daily cup tea can offer an unexpected health benefits – reducing heavy metals harmful in drinking water. A study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University has found that tea leaves naturally have the ability to remove lead and other dangerous metals from water.

Each day with an estimated 5 billion cups of tea worldwide, the potential implications of this discovery are very high. “You can see the implications,” said Vinayak Dravid, a material scientist at Northwestern University and one of the authors of the study. “How many times do we touch billions of people?”

Drinking water threats in drinking water

Heavy metal contamination, especially lead, has become a growing concern, especially in areas with infrastructure of aging. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that about 9 million houses in the United States get their water through lead pipes. Over time, these pipes can leach the toxic metal to the water supply, leading to a significant health risk.

Even a small amount of lead exposure can be dangerous, especially for children. It is associated with developmental delay, learning disability and behavioral issues. For adults, prolonged contact for lead may contribute to high blood pressure, kidney damage and neurological disorders.

How Tea lead helps reduce contamination

To understand how the tea affects the level of lead in water, the research team tested a variety of tea, including commercial brands such as black, white, green, oolong, ruibos, herbal, loose leaf and lipton. Their findings showed that black tea was most effective in absorbing lead from water.

The study co-writer Benjamin Shindel said, “Green tea and black tea were absorbed in equal amount of metal.”

The reason behind this purification effect lies in the compounds found in tea leaves. Catechins, a type of abundant antioxidants in tea acts like a subtle velcro hook that latch on lead molecules, effectively pull them out of water. Additionally, the textured surface of the tea leaves filled with lines and valleys provides sufficient space for adherence to these heavy metals.

White tea, which undergoes low processing and smooth leaves, was found to be quite low to absorb the lead. Like chamomile, herbal tea, which do not come from real tea leaves, were also less effective in removing heavy metals.

Limit and practical use

The study found that about 15 percent of the leads in the water can remove black tea for five minutes. However, while no reduction in contamination is beneficial, EPA warns that no lead exposure is completely safe.

In addition, while the metal absorption rate improved from time to time for a long time, they made tea bitter and inseparable after 10 minutes. Tea samples submerged for 24 hours showed the highest level of removal of the highest level, but it was impossible to consume due to excessive bitterness.

Despite these boundaries, researchers estimate that people can face about 3 percent less leads than their water than those who do not drink tea in countries where tea consumption is high.

“Given that clean water is such a global issue,” Michelle Frankle, a chemist at Brian Mawar College, said, “It would be great if there was a way to take this evidence of the concept and finally to produce potable water, it would be great.

The findings were recently published in the ACS Food Science and Technology Journal. While more research is required to find out how this discovery can be applied on a large scale, it highlights the amazing and potential role of tea in making water safe for drinking water.

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