People who regularly drink very hot tea or coffee may face a higher risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, a study has found. Those who drank their beverages very hot had nearly three times the risk of developing the cancer compared with people who drank them warm.
The study also found a link with consumption levels. People who drank six or more hot beverages a day faced a higher risk than those who consumed fewer.
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Why Temperature Matters
Coffee and tea are typically consumed at about 50 to 60 degrees Celsius, although temperatures vary by country and preparation method. Adding milk does not necessarily make a drink cool enough, and experts recommend letting very hot beverages sit for several minutes before drinking.
“If a drink is uncomfortable to drink, letting it sit to cool down a bit to what you might expect to be warm or hot as opposed to very hot would be a good idea,” said Keren Papier, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Oxford’s Department of Population Health and a co-author of the study.
Papier said the size of the study strengthens evidence linking very hot drinks with squamous cell carcinoma, a subtype of esophageal cancer.
A Rare But Serious Cancer
Esophageal cancer has two main forms: squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Squamous cell esophageal cancer remains relatively rare in the UK, where the lifetime risk of developing the disease is about 1%, according to Papier.
The potential public-health impact is nevertheless significant because tea and coffee are among Europe’s most widely consumed beverages. Europeans consumed an average of 5.7 kilograms of coffee per person in 2023.
Smoking And Alcohol Remain Major Risk Factors
Temperature is only one part of the overall risk picture. Cancer Research UK identifies smoking and alcohol consumption as the leading lifestyle risk factors for esophageal cancer, followed by obesity.
“The best thing beyond our study is to make sure that you cut your smoking and maybe avoiding alcohol helps a bit as well,” Papier said. She emphasized that established cancer risk factors should remain central to prevention.
For tea and coffee drinkers, the practical takeaway is simple: let very hot beverages cool before drinking them.
