World Health Organisation issues worrying warning about hot drinks

You might want to let the drink settle for a couple of minutes so it can cool down.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the WHO, said very hot drinks of 65C and over could cause oesophageal cancer. The good news, however, is that it is the heat rather than what's in the drink which causes the problems so you just need to play it cool going forward. Dr Christopher Wild, director of 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." Drinking very hot beverages was classified as 'probably carcinogenic to humans.' This was based on limited evidence from epidemiological studies that showed positive associations between cancer of the oesophagus and drinking very hot beverages. Studies in places such as China, Iran, Turkey, and South America, where tea or maté is traditionally drunk very hot (atabout 70 °C), found that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk. So probably best to leave it sit in the cup for a few minutes to cool down or add a dash of milk to take the heat away.