A winter morning, a paper cup of tea, and a claim that the humble vessel is quietly harming the kidneys. Here an Indian television channel has taken a familiar habit of the cold months and placed it under suspicion, citing a microplastics figure attributed to IIT Kharagpur without naming any study or researcher behind it. The story sits within a long human tradition of distrusting the everyday object and reaching back toward older, simpler vessels and remedies, and it asks its readers to hold a warning and a remedy together without yet showing the evidence that would justify either.
Paper Cups and Kidney Health: Microplastic Claims Attributed to IIT Kharagpur Lack Verified Sourcing
The figure is attributed to IIT Kharagpur, but no study is named
Mark
The headline number is 75,000 particles from three cups of tea. Where does it come from?
Mimi
The article says IIT Kharagpur. That's the whole citation. No study title, no researcher, no link.
Luke
So the figure is attributed, not confirmed. I can't tell from this piece whether the research exists as described, or whether the kidney-damage link was part of it or added later.
Mark
The mechanism sounds plausible though. A plastic lining inside the cup, hot liquid, chemicals leaching.
Mimi
It's the article's explanation, and it's intuitive: paper would dissolve without a coating. But the piece says sugar and stirring speed up leakage, and offers nothing to back that.
Luke
Plausible isn't measured. Even if particles shed into hot liquid, the jump to liver and kidney harm needs evidence. The article skips from one to the other.
Mark
Then there's the Swami Ramdev section.
Mimi
Mostly lifestyle advice: exercise, water, less salt, no smoking. Then herbal specifics like neem juice, peepal juice, gokharu water, and cornsilk for kidney stones.
Luke
The general advice is ordinary. The cure claims are different. Cornsilk eliminating stones and clearing UTIs is a strong statement, and no clinical evidence is cited. Same for the 70% figure on diabetics and kidney disease. No source.
Mark
So what can a reader take away?
Mimi
That the article's core claims need checking against published research before anyone acts on them.
O Pulso
- A widely shared health warning claims that a paper cup of tea three times a day delivers 75,000 microplastic particles into the body.
- The alarm lands hardest on a winter habit, as tea, coffee and soup consumption rises and disposable cups feel like the safe choice.
- The article moves quickly from warning to remedy, urging a return to ceramic and steel cups and a home pharmacy of neem, peepal and cornsilk.
- The IIT figure has no named study, researcher or link behind it, and the herbal cures come with no clinical evidence cited.
- The story is landing as an unverified health claim, and readers are left to find the peer-reviewed research themselves before changing habits.
A winter morning, a paper cup of tea, and a claim that the humble vessel is quietly harming the kidneys. Here an Indian television channel has taken a familiar habit of the cold months and placed it under suspicion, citing a microplastics figure attributed to IIT Kharagpur without naming any study or researcher behind it. The story sits within a long human tradition of distrusting the everyday object and reaching back toward older, simpler vessels and remedies, and it asks its readers to hold a warning and a remedy together without yet showing the evidence that would justify either.
On January 31, 2025, India TV News published a health piece that opened with a stark claim: three paper cups of tea a day could push 75,000 microplastic particles into the body and raise the risk of kidney damage. The figure is credited to IIT Kharagpur, but no study, researcher or link is given to back it up.
The piece is aimed at winter, when tea, coffee and soup are everywhere and disposable cups seem like the sensible choice. It calls them a fraud and explains that a thin plastic lining on the inside leaks chemicals into hot drinks, more so when sugar is stirred in. Its remedy is simple: return to ceramic and steel. No measurements or clinical findings support the liver and kidney claims.
The second half turns to advice attributed to Swami Ramdev. General kidney-care habits such as exercise, healthy weight, not smoking, drinking water and avoiding excess painkillers are listed, along with a figure that 70 percent of people with diabetes have kidney disease, again unsourced. The herbal prescriptions follow: buttermilk, horse gram, barley, gokharu water, a teaspoon each of neem and peepal leaf juice, and boiled cornsilk for stones and infections. None comes with clinical evidence.
The article does get one thing right, that excess salt disturbs the body's sodium balance and affects the kidneys. The rest rests on claims readers cannot yet check. Anyone weighing a change in habit would do well to look for peer-reviewed work on paper cup coatings, microplastic release in hot liquids and kidney health before acting on it.
On January 31, 2025, India TV News published a health piece with a blunt opening claim: a person who drinks tea from a paper cup even three times a day takes 75,000 microplastic particles into the body, and that raises the risk of kidney damage. The article attributes the figure to IIT Kharagpur. It does not name a study, a researcher, or a link to the research.
The piece is pitched at winter habits. Consumption of tea, coffee and soup rises in the cold months, it says, and many people choose disposable paper cups outside the home because they seem like a safe option. The article calls them a big fraud and cites unnamed health experts who say plastic and chemicals go into their manufacture.
Its explanation rests on a simple comparison. Pour water on paper and it starts to dissolve, so why does a paper cup hold its shape? The article's answer is an ultra-thin plastic coating on the inside. When hot tea or coffee goes in, it says, chemicals from that coating begin to leak. Adding sugar and stirring until it dissolves makes the leakage faster, according to the piece. Drinking tea this way over a long period, it concludes, harms the liver and kidneys.
From there the article makes a practical recommendation. People had assumed plastic cups were out and paper cups were safe, it says, but the reader should now return to ceramic and steel cups, a return to basics. No test results, exposure measurements or clinical findings are offered for the liver and kidney claims.
The second half turns to remedies attributed to Swami Ramdev. A list of general kidney-care habits is offered: exercise, control your weight, don't smoke, drink plenty of water, avoid junk food, and don't take too many painkillers. For people over 30, the diet advice is to drink more water, cut salt and sugar, and eat more fibre, nuts, whole grains and protein. The article says blood pressure, anxiety and diabetes should be kept under control, and states that 70% of sugar patients have kidney disease. That figure is also given without a source.
The herbal advice is more specific. Readers are told to add sour buttermilk, horse gram dal, barley flour and stonecrop leaves to their diet. Gokharu water, made by soaking the plant in water, boiling and cooling it, is to be drunk once a day. Home remedies include one teaspoon of neem leaf juice in the morning and one teaspoon of peepal leaf juice in the evening. Boiling cornsilk in water, filtering it and drinking it is said to eliminate kidney stones and clear UTI infection. The article cites no clinical evidence for any of these.
The article does say one thing that is hard to argue with: excess salt disturbs the body's sodium balance and affects kidney function. Most of the other advice is similarly general. The paper cup warning and the herbal cures are the parts that carry specific claims, and those are the parts without verifiable support in the text.
For readers, the useful next step is to look for peer-reviewed research on paper cup coatings, microplastic release in hot liquids, and kidney health before changing habits or relying on the home remedies. The article itself does not point to any.
Citações Notáveis
Drinking tea in paper cups for a long time has a bad effect on the liver and kidneys.— India TV News article, paraphrasing unnamed health experts
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