It’s hard to imagine a demographic (in the United States, at least) that would be more incensed about microplastics and hormone-disrupting bisphenol A (BPA) polluting their drinks than the people who really enjoy a hot cup of tea. We’re talking food co-op volunteers. We’re talking yoga instructors. We’re talking hippie parents who will not hit up the Burger King drive-thru, no matter how much their kids beg from the backseat.

If you fall into any one of these categories, please brace yourselves: A new study conducted by researchers in Türkiye has found that tea brewed from the kinds of plastic-mesh tea bags used by some brands can (well) infuse these hot steeped beverages with somewhere between 555 and 2,498 microplastic particles per cup, on average. But the researchers, both professors at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, also detected concerning amounts of BPA and similarly endocrine-disrupting plasticizers seeping into their test cups of tea via these plastic particles as well.

Both compounds had been added to these plastic tea bags ostensibly to improve their strength, pliability, and resistance to heat, but it doesn’t appear that this latter goal worked out. In just one cup’s worth, the scientists recorded volumes of BPA higher than one fifth of the European Food Safety Authority’s tolerable daily intake (EFSA TDI) for the substance.

7% of the EFSA TDI value, a finding that serves as a critical warning, particularly for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children,” the researchers wrote in their study.

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