Before you get too worked up–they didn’t find microplastics in your tea if you were using paper tea bags. Generally, pyramid shaped tea bags are made of plastic, while paper bags are flat.

The plastic tea bags did surprise researchers at McGill University, however, as they expected at least some microplastics to show up in their testing, hence the reason for the study. They did not expect that there would be billions of microplastics in a single tea bag.

“We were expecting to find a few plastic particles, maybe hundreds or thousands,” a researcher said. “But we were extremely surprised to find billions of particles. Billions of plastics came out of the tea bag.”

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, report that a single plastic tea bag releases 11 billion micro-sized plastic particles and 3 billion nano-sized plastic particles into 95-degree water.

Researchers say that we ingest microplastics in nearly all foods, and there is not yet proven research that says that this is dangerous.

“Be observant of the type of packaging your tea comes in,” researchers said. “The plastic packaging isn’t necessary.”

Kaylee Huntley Managing Editor

Kaylee was raised (but not *technically* born) in Colorado. She graduated from Regis University with a bachelor of arts in English. During her time at Regis she worked as a teaching assistant in a freshman classroom setting and in the writing center helping students on a variety of topics. While there, she discovered Cura Personalis, or care for the entire person, leading to her love of feminism and desire for equal rights for all. Kaylee spends her time reading, writing, and debating.