PARIS (AFP) - Drinking very hot beverages "probably"
causes cancer of the oesophagus, the United Nation (UN)'s cancer
agency said Wednesday (June 15), while lifting suspicion from
coffee if consumed at "normal serving temperatures".
"These results suggest that drinking very hot beverages
is one probable cause of oesophageal cancer and that it is the
temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be
responsible," said Christopher Wild, director of the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The agency reviewed more than 1,000 scientific studies
on the possible cancer-causing properties of coffee and the popular
South American herbal infusion mate.
Both had been classified as "possibly cancerogenic to
humans" since 1991, when the last evaluation was conducted.
Evidence gathered since then suggested that neither
drink could be linked to a higher cancer risk, said the agency.
However, there was some evidence that drinking these
and other beverages at temperatures above 65 degrees C - may cause
cancer of the gullet.
"Studies in places such as China, the Islamic Republic
of Iran, Turkey and South America, where tea or mate is
traditionally drunk very hot (at about 70 degrees C) found that the
risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which
the beverage was drunk," said the IARC.
"Drinking very hot beverages at above 65 degrees C was
classified as 'probably' carcinogenic to humans." The studies took
into account factors that could have skewed assessment of the
cancer risk, such alcohol and tobacco use.
ST