Drinking ‘Very Hot’ Drinks May Increase Your Risk of Cancer, Latest Study Finds

Research conducted on nearly 1 million adults finds ‘very hot’ temperature coffee and tea is linked to higher esophageal cancer risk.

A new study by the University of Oxford suggests that individuals who drink beverages like tea and coffee at ‘very hot’ temperatures may have higher risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), a type of esophageal cancer that begins in the cells lining the esophagus.

For this study, Dr Keren Papier, the lead researcher and her team analyzed data from around 980,000 UK adults through the Million Women Study and UK Biobank.

The participants were asked to track their consumption preference and frequency - whether they typically drank beverages at ‘very hot’, ‘hot’ or ‘warm’ temperatures. The researchers then tracked the participants through routine screening since 2016 and 2010 to see whether they developed esophageal SCC.

Compared to the people who reported drinking their beverages ‘warm’, the researchers found that those who prefer drinking their beverages ‘very hot’ had a three times greater risk of esophageal SCC.

Although the exact temperatures were not mentioned in the study, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified beverages above 65°C as ‘very hot’ “probably carcinogenic” in 2016.

The ‘very hot’ temperature was thought to increase the risk of the disease by damaging the cells lining the esophageal through repeated heat exposure. During this process, there is a greater chance that something may go wrong and cause normal cells to turn into cancer cells.

It is not just temperature that matters, but also how often you consume it.

The researchers have found that a daily consumption of more than 6 ‘very hot’ drinks a day was associated with a 71% higher risk of esophageal SCC.

The research suggests that reducing the temperature of your drink for those who frequently consume ‘very hot’ beverages could offer an important means of preventing esophageal cancer. An estimated 14% of esophageal cancer could be avoided if individuals who drink at a ‘very hot’ temperature instead consume at ‘hot’.

A person’s risk of esophageal cancer can depend on many factors. In the United States, esophageal cancer makes up about 1% of all cancers diagnosed, and the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with this type of cancer is 1 in 132 (0.76%) for men and about 1 in 437 (0.235%) for women.

Even if ‘very hot’ drinks might increase someone’s risk, the chances of them developing the cancer are still low.

“The most important ways to reduce the risk of this cancer type are not smoking and cutting down on alcohol”

- Fiona Osgun, the head of health information at Cancer Research UK