Yesterday, we reported that the agency found no conclusive evidence for a carcinogenic effect of drinking coffee, but drinking hot beverages of 70 degrees Celsius does.
Christopher Wild, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), said: “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.
“Smoking and alcohol drinking are major causes of oesophageal cancer, particularly in many high-income countries. However, the majority of oesophageal cancers occur in part of Asia, South America and East Africa, where regularly drinking very hot beverages is common and where the reasons for the high incidence of this cancer are not as well understood.”
Studies found that where tea or mate is traditionally drunk very hot (China, Iran, Turkey) the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk.
Oesophageal cancer is the eight most common cause of cancer worldwide and one of the main causes of cancer death, with approximately 400,000 deaths recorded in 2012 (5% of all cancer deaths).
Coffee has been reclassified to Group 3 in the WHO rankings, meaning it's not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.