EDMONTON – It’s often thought of as a healthier alternative to coffee for pregnant women; but now, a local doctor has a warning about tea after finding some types of the hot beverage contain enough lead to potentially cause damage to a developing fetus.
“It is concerning because I think a lot of women drink more tea rather than coffee because it has less caffeine,” said Beajay Louie-Hemmati, whose son, Jian, is five months old.
An Edmonton physician, who co-authored and funded a new study, tested 30 different types of common tea. He found the lead levels — if you drank three to four cups of tea per day — were high enough to pose a risk for pregnant women.
“I was quite surprised,” said Dr. Gerry Schwalfenberg. “I was actually thinking ‘wow, this is quite a bit.'”
The tea was sent for testing at a lab in Sweden. Schwalfenberg says the results showed the lead levels in the teas were above 0.5 micrograms per litre — the daily amount deemed safe for pregnant women.
“About 70 per cent, or a little bit more, of the teas that we had, had more than that if you drank three to four cups of tea,” Schwalfenberg explained.
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“The amount of lead that you would get in tea — if you drank three to four cups a day — as an average person, it’s probably not a big issue,” he said. “But when it comes to the fetus, the developing brain is not protected from absorbing lead… So what the mother will absorb may go directly to the (baby’s) brain.”
Schwalfenberg says his findings also showed it mattered where the tea was grown.
“We found that tea that came from China had the higher levels — especially Oolong tea. And then green tea behind that and then black tea was a little bit less,” he explained. “But when you’re looking at tea from India and Sri Lanka, you actually have less lead in those.”
Lead contamination has been linked to miscarriage, low birth weight, neurological problems in babies.
Schwalfenberg says further research needs to be done, but “at this point in time I think it’s still advisable to say limit the amount of tea that you’re drinking while you’re pregnant, because it’s one of the sources of lead that you have and you can reduce that.”
“It’s not worth the risk,” he added.
Louie-Hemmati says she only drank about two cups of tea per day while pregnant, and her son is a very healthy little boy.
“I was fairly careful,” she said. “But at the same time, there’s lots of things in life you can’t control, so you do your best.”
With files from Su-Ling Goh, Global News.
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