Most "paper" tea bags these days are lined with harmful plastics, e.g. PLA (polylactic acid). It is used to prevent them from tearing apart, but it's disastrous for the body. This week I decided to stop using all tea bags, switching to loose leaf.
That is a polymer industry lie. It is a bioplastic which still is a plastic. Bioplastics have the benefit that they may degrade faster into nanoplastics in the environment rather than remain as bigger solids, but this hardly makes them safer in any way.
In fact, these works show PLA to be harmful:
1. [PMID: 38354814] Are bioplastics safe? Hazardous effects of polylactic acid (PLA) nanoplastics in Drosophila
2. [doi: 10.1007/s11783-024-1779-4] A potential threat from biodegradable microplastics: mechanism of cadmium adsorption and desorption in the simulated gastrointestinal environment
3. [PMID: 37354720] The release of polylactic acid nanoplastics (PLA-NPLs) from commercial teabags. Obtention, characterization, and hazard effects of true-to-life PLA-NPLs (This shows barrier disruption.)
Moreover, the tea bags were causing me neurological reactive symptoms which disappeared after I switched to loose leaf. (All brands were Organic.)
