I think the key here is that the populations they are studying drink hot liquids in extreme excess, in that tea accompanies nearly every meal, and they are so used to the temperature of the tea that it doesn't affect them as much. Most people drink tea maybe once or twice a day, just a few cups.

I'm wondering why they haven't looked at Asian populations, which also drink a lot of tea, and with nearly every meal.

There's also a study that found (NSFW) that oral sex is causing a increase in throat cancer among women. [news.google.com]
I find this Iranian study to be a little "off". They took people who already had cancer, and teamed them up with people who didn't, and asked them how they prefer their tea. Unless you actively measured the temp of the tea over the entire drinking process over many years, I don't see how you can "prove" that this can lead to cancer. I have a feeling this will be overturned in a few weeks.

Let me be the first one to call bullshit on this...doesn't everything cause cancer now?

And yes, tea and other hot liquids are a mainstay in certain Asian homes, with my experience being with Korean people (my in-laws). Yet their rate of cancer is much lower than ours, and it's common knowledge they live longer than Americans.

First it's good for you, then it's bad. Ten bucks says there'll be another study within a year that says hot tea is fantastic for you.

Any idea of why hotter = more cancerous? I skimmed the article and didn't see anything concretely saying anything. Just that they blame the temperature rather than the contents. Maybe it causes scarring from burns or something, and then something else happens, and then cancer?

@1stMarDiv: They are also awesome at math.

I imagine there are worse ways to go than via my daily half-dozen cups of Tetley British Blend.

Wow what scientific research!!!! They asked a bunch of people with cancer how they drank their tea!!

here's a tidbit of information for people whom for whatever reason never took statistics.

correlation does not necessitate causation.

btw I polled some college graduates and I found that smoking pot increases the likely hood of graduation!

Although not a science-guy-approved study, I would think that drinking hot liquids over time damages the lining and cells of the esophagus, making it more susceptible to cancer. Perhaps it's just reductive baloney, but it seems that damaging cells (by smoking, being in the sun too long, hot liquids) makes them more attractive to carcinogenic substances.

I did an experiment some years ago where I dropped lab rats and other animals into a large pot of boiling hot tea.

The results? 100% fatality rate.

I was shocked by these findings, and immediately alerted the FDA. Some days later the Animal Cruelty Society showed up at my door.

My conclusions? I didn't get a chance to write them up due to a sudden, unexpected trip to prison.

When I was a kid, I was told by my grandmother that drinking ice cold water was bad...she wasn't the most reputable source on what was healthy. I think she may have conducted this study.

@ekthesy:
It's not that damaging cells makes them attractive to carcinogens, it's that when you damage them, your body has to make new cells, the more new ones it has to make the larger chance that some of the cells will be abnormal (cancerous). That's my non-scientific explanation.

Also, not sure why they're saying this is new. I know I read studies about drinking too-hot coffee or tea causing throat cancer five or more years ago.

@pecan 3.14159265: My grandma said something about eating Raw meat was good for you.

I think grandparents wished death upon us hapless children.

Given the part of the world... I'd be interested in where their tea comes from... didn't part of Iran get a little Chernobyl blast? Could it be the tea leaves themselves?

@1stMarDiv: Being alive causes cancer - some things just increase your risk of actually getting cancer before you die of something else.

Ever notice that tea from coffee shops is always served at ridiculously scalding temperatures?

@SpongeSteveSquareDave_GitEmSteveDave: Very true, and as 1stMarDiv mentions below, tea drinking is also extremely common in cultures with low cancer rates. It could be a combination of things - hot tea plus diet, for example, or hot tea plus regional temperature. Or all three. Or none of them. There's way too many variables to consider this a meaningful conclusion.

I can't drink things that are really hot anyway. I always have to let me coffee and tea cool off for a while before I can stand to drink it.

@SpongeSteveSquareDave_GitEmSteveDave"

There's also a study that found (NSFW) that oral sex is causing a increase in throat cancer among women.

OMG, you bastard! If my wife reads that you are sooo dead.

@pecan 3.14159265: Well, I'm wondering why they didn't look at McDonalds coffee drinkers.

McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste.

@pecan 3.14159265: My grandma said that eating raw cookie dough would give you worms and too many grapes would give you the runs... but I think she just wanted to keep us away from her cookie dough and grapes.

@1stMarDiv: Calling bullshit is definitely carcinogenic.

@rpm773: I remember watching something on ONN about the effects of stab wounds on monkeys... fascinating stuff.

The best part of waking up...

@brianary: What do you mean there's no ice. You mean I gotta drink this tea hot?

@brianary: Probably because it's not covered by the "hot coffee" disclaimer on the cup.

Major loophole, and the coffee shops are totally exploiting it!

Anything in excess can kill you. Even water.

Any links to the actual study, and not a news story? It looks like a correlational study, where they took 300 patients that already had esophageal cancer, and 571 patients that were healthy.

Correlationally, there could have been any number of confounding factors, but without reading the actual study, it's impossible to see what (or if) they controlled for anything.

@Snowblind: Haha, I was just thinking "maybe I should show this to my boyfriend, see what he thinks..."

I work in a cafe and I can't believe how many people want their drinks extra hot. I can hardly stand most drinks at their prepared temperature (~150F) and certainly not up to 180F like some people like.

Especially coffee. I like it lukewarm. Well, really, I don't like it at all unless it's iced.

@dulcinea47: It's even a little worse than that. Damaged cells try to repair themselves, including DNA damage, and while it's usually pretty good (and careful), it's error-prone - certainly moreso than normal cell replication.

By damaging cells, you're increasing the rate of mutations and thereby increasing cancer risk.

@ajlei: I try to get coffee extra hot because it takes me a while to drink a cup of coffee, and I'll end up throwing it out if it gets too cold, too quickly. If I get it extra hot, and just wait a few minutes, it'll be drinkable and will stay hot longer.

@SpongeSteveSquareDave_GitEmSteveDave: That is because of the rise of HPV, the virus that causes several forms of cancer- not just cervical. Boys, you can get vaccinated, too!

Maybe it's just tea itself. Or the kind of tea. Or maybe the people who drink tea that hot are so impatient that they don't wash their cups out.

Eh, I'll keep drinking my nice hot tea/coffee until it's good for me again.

@The_IT_Crone: According to Alex Jones, that's how the government under Barack Obama, aka "the tip of the spear", is introducing bird flu into us to create a weaponized aerial strain. Yeah, made me giggle too.

It's official: Everything will kill you one way or the other.

Milk in tea? I'd rather have cancer. I guess i should let it cool a bit more before drinking, though. Hmmm, 158 degrees is really hot.

@Skankingmike: So that's how I could have graduated magna cum laude!

@Snowblind:

Agreed. I tell a lot of the studies I find on he internet to my girlfriend, this is not going to be one of them.

That's why I take hits on my base-coke/meth pipe for a full two minutes before I take my first sip of tea for the day!

Also, don't forget that saliva taken in small doses over an extended period of time causes death.

@brianary: Fortunately, the Golestan province lacks Frappacinos, so we're all safe.

@rpm773: I did the same thing, only the lil mousies were so cute, I couldn't drop 'em in. So the good news is, the animal cruelty people never showed up at my door.
The bad news: Child Protective Services people can get really rude!

@B: Maybe it is because I started drinking coffee on winter camping trips in the Adirondacks (and really got hooked doing Polar Bear Swims in half-frozen lakes at 6am), but I like my coffee/tea/hot chocolate HOT!. Straight off the boil is no problem if I have the right mug. My wife thinks I'm crazy. From this study, it would appear she's right.

Oh well, better go get me another cup o cancer.

@downwithmonstercable: I don't know for sure, but it's probably because the hot tea burns the lining of the esophagus, so cells have to regrow to fill in the damaged spots. More regeneration = More chances for error in DNA to occur = Higher chance of cancer

@Trai_Dep: Yeah, those folks notoriously care nothing for the sciences. Philistines!

Look, here's a citation about the same thing, from 1987.

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]

@B: milk tea is actually really good... lol

@downwithmonstercable: As I understand it, when the cells of the esophagus are burned/damaged, whether via alcohol, acid reflux, or (possibly) hot tea, they regrow as cells similar to the stomach lining, which take damage much better but are also much more likely to develop cancer.