Health/Advice/Wellness

Beware Takeaway Cups Are Harmful To Health

Takeaway cups contain microplastics so be careful

Single-use plastic

I was invited to a National Conference on Sustainability in the retail and health sector. I was in the panel on the retail sector. It was held in a college so I spoke to the students about how single-use plastic is so harmful and we should avoid it as far as possible.

The students agreed that we should take care of the environment and that is why the conference was being held to promote awareness amongst people. They told me a lot about the programs that they did.

After they had spoken with a lot of fire and energy, I spoke to them and asked them how many of them bought shampoos, creams, and other cosmetics. A lot of them raised their hands. Then I asked them how many brought home Coke and Sprite bottles homes. More hands went up.

I asked them if they had noticed that all cosmetics and coke and shampoo bottles were covered with a thin transparent layer of plastic that looked like glass. Try and open them and you actually need a pair of scissors or a sharp object to go inside the thin lining to open it. All this was plastic. Now they looked guilty.

I sent them to the dustbin and asked them to see what was inside the big bins in the college. They told me it was full of takeaway cups and glasses of tea and coffee and juices. they also served me coffee in one of those cups but it was hot and I declined.

The takeaway cups

The takeaway cups look exciting, don’t they? They are certainly comfortable! Many times I go to the market and see good coffee being served. I just cannot resist picking it up and just walking around and drinking coffee or tea.

I am sure that the coffee and tea shops take care of our comfort and our health but many recent studies show that it is not so cool to pick up these coffees or exotic teas or soups and roam around.

WHY IS IT DANGEROUS TO DRINK COFFEE, TEA, OR OTHER BEVERAGES IN THEM?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released a report on April 20th 2022,” Plastics don’t exist only as large objects, but also as microscopic particles that are released from these larger products. These microscopic plastics can end up in the environment, and they can be ingested into our bodies”.

A research study from the Indian Institute of Technology IT Kharagpur recently discovered that an average of 25,000 microplastic was found per cup. Harmful metals like zinc, lead, and chromium was also found in the water. This means that disposable paper cups are not safe for drinking tea and a person drinking three cups of tea a day will be ingesting 75,000 tiny microplastic particles

Paper cups are found to be lined by a thin layer of the hydrophobic film made of plastic (polyethene) and co-polymers to hold the liquid in the paper cup. Within 15 minutes this microplastic layer degrades as a reaction to hot water, says the first of its kind study conducted in India by Dr Sudha Goel, Ved Prakash Ranjan, and Anuja Joseph

According to the researchers, the takeaway cups contain microplastics. The material with which such gasses are coated with microplastics and in the hot beverages the cups shed the particles into the glass when you drink. The thin plastic film that is coated in the glasses is dangerous but the coating of this transparent material is so that the glass does not leak. If the beverage leaks then the takeaway glass will be of no use.

While you take care of leakages by making the glass sound you are not taking care of the other health hazards that it causes.

A study reported that in Australia 1 Billion disposable coffee cups are used each year and 2.7 million each day. How much would be the consumption around the world?

What are the learnings?

• Schools and colleges in different countries are all serving tea or coffee in takeaway cups to the students. We are poisoning our youth and we must find an alternate solution.
• We are equally to blame with the retailers who are using microplastics for packing because although we do not like single-use plastic yet we do not hesitate to buy products that are lined with microplastics.
• Microplastics are dangerous because they are made from discarded material and they are usually from plastic products like bottles and tubes and they all generate microplastics.
• The cups lined with plastics are called microplastics because of their small size. They are less than 0.2 inches or 5mm, in length. Chemically they are usually polythene particles but they can also be polypropylene or polystyrene.

To conclude

All we can do is carry our own glasses and buy coffee till we find a solution.

People who are addicted to coffee or tea will not be able to leave it but using plastic lined glasses will cause them a lot of harm.

We have to look into the future of both the environment and mankind also. Our waterways are getting choked and they are unable to breathe.

Most of our discarded plastic goes into the oceans and the fish ingest it and it has been reported that microplastics are found in human bodies through them.

Take care of the future of the environment and human beings who live there. Keep it clean. Save yourself from takeaway cups !

©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2022.

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