The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on Wednesday published a report which indicating that drinking very hot beverages, of any kind, above 65C would lead to cancer risk something some of the cancer experts refuted.
Hot drinks are said to sometimes cause “thermal injury” in the throat and this could eventually promote the growth of tumours, although evidence to bark this argument was limited.
“Drinking very hot beverages is one probable cause of esophageal cancer and that it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible,” IARC Director Christopher Wild told the AFP news agency
The report backtracked on previous suggestions that coffee was linked to bladder cancer, a claim that stretches back to 1991.
According to the report there was “no conclusive evidence for a carcinogenic effect” of coffee and suggested it could lower the risk of breast cancer for woman and prostate cancer for men – as long as it was served at a relatively low temperature.
Dana Loomis, a cancer expert who took part in the study, warned that regularly drinking any hot drink could have dire consequences.
Even boiled water can cause cancer if it’s served too hot.“It doesn’t matter what the liquid is,” he said.“What matters is the temperature.”