Do Bleached Teabags Represent a Health Risk?
Recently, there was a lot of buzz in news about how dangerous bleached teabags may be. The fact is that during chlorine-bleaching some toxic substances, like dioxin, may be created. So, let’s find out if small amount of dioxin in chlorine-bleached teabags may actually be dangerous.
Picture 1. Teabags
What are Teabags Made From?
First teabags were made from silk and muslin. Nowadays, teabags are mostly made from paper, produced from a blend of wood and vegetable (hemp) fibers. Both wood and vegetable pulp are usually chlorine-bleached, meaning that small amount of toxic chlorine compounds may end up in teabag paper.
To avoid chlorine toxicity, today some tea sellers use only teabags from non-chlorine (oxygen) bleached teabag paper, completely non-bleached paper, or teabags from synthetic fibers (1).
Paper Production and Bleaching
Wood consists of about 50% cellulose fibers, 30% lignin fibers, and 20% of other easily extracted substances (2). Lignin gives wood its strength and color. In order to get white paper (almost 100% cellulose), lignin and other substances have to be removed. Pulp cooking removes the most lignin from the pulp, and remaining lignin can be removed by bleaching.
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