http://sg.news.yahoo.com/tapioca-pearls-bubble-tea-contain-carcinogens-german-study-102858555.html
AFP Relax – Wed, Aug 29, 2012
German health authorities and researchers have come out swinging
recently against the Taiwanese drink bubble tea, warning that the
popular dessert beverage presents a choking hazard to children and
may contain cancer-causing chemicals.
The warnings, released separately, come as Europe, and Germany
in particular, begin to catch on to the bubble tea trend which has
already swept major urban centers in North America to become a
popular dessert beverage.
After analyzing the tapioca balls which make up the ‘bubbles' in
the drink, researchers from the University Hospital Aachen, for
instance, found that the pearls contained
polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs such as styrene, acetophenone,
and brominated substances, chemicals that shouldn't be in food at
all, researchers told German paper The Local.
Samples were taken from an unnamed chain in Mönchengladbach, in
northwest Germany and the tapioca balls were made in
Taiwan.
The study comes on the heels of a public health warning from the country's German Federal
Institute for Risk Assessment earlier this month, which warned that
the tapioca balls also present a choking risk to
children.
"Especially with children aged up to four years,
there is a risk of foreign objects accidentally entering the
lungs," said Dr. Andreas Hensel in a statement. "And that is
precisely what can happen when the bubbles are sucked up through a
straw."
Meanwhile, the institute says no bubble tea-related accidents
have yet been reported.
???thought the bubbles was sago thing soaked in coloured
flavourings???i believe the manufacturers could have used chemical
synthesising to make bubbles cheaper.thus styrene and other toxic
monomers are present using the high energy chem disint5egrating
method which usually gives an accurate graphical layout to all
known materials.
but im not sure about the bubbles being ingested to lungs.maybe
they should lpike make bubble tea way more expensive until 4 yr
olds cant have em to solve issues.