By Sujit ChakrabortyAgartala, Dec 4 : Tea produced in the northeast region and the Dooars and Darjeeling in West Bengal is safe to drink, a risk assessment study by a 3-member team of scientists from the Tea Research Association (TRA) has confirmed.
The TRA scientists — Bappaditya Kanrar, Sangeeta Kundu, Pathik Khan — conducted an in-depth study of the samples collected from eight different areas in Assam, Tripura and West Bengal and analysed them at the TRA’s National Accreditation Board for Testing accredited laboratory in Kolkata.
The abstract of the study report, available with IANS, said: “Northeast Indian tea would not pose any health hazard.”
“A total 321 drier mouth samples were collected during 2020-2021 from eight different regions (Darjeeling.Terai, Dooars, North Bank, Upper Assam, South Bank, Cachar and Tripura).No inorganic mercury as well as uranium was detected in any tested tea samples,” the study said.
It said that tea is a perennial crop that requires acidic soil for better plant growth and due to the acidic nature of tea-growing soil, metals can be easily absorbed by tea plants from the growing medium.
Other anthropogenic activities are also the major contributor of elements in the tea.This study provided a comprehensive database of 24 elements which were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), the study report stated.
The study was published in the Biological Trace Element Research journal.
The study revealed that human health risk for non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic metals was also assessed for the studied elements.
“Hazard quotients (HQs) and hazard index (HI) values (
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