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> known death from abuse of the deadly stimulant drug in it (caffeine) Can you name 1 (one) example of tea (or coffee) induced death?

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
It is feasible to brew enough strong tea, and drink it, to cause cardiac arrest in a susceptible individual. It's extremely unlikely someone would do that, and there's probable enough bitters in tea, especially green tea, to cause the average person to vomit before they ingested too much caffeine from tea. But what green wrote is true and correct: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/a-real-life-death-by-caffeine https://www.caffeineinformer.com/a-real-life-death-by-caffei...
- vidarh 9y ago
  So it seems these were mainly suicides, and it's about as relevant as blaming water for people intentionally drowning themselves. Worth noting that e.g.the doses listed under energy drinks on that page are well within ranges that have been used in various studies of impact of caffeine on athletic ability. If those levels are dangerous to some it seems likely to require a pre-existing heart problem as there seems to be exceedingly little evidence that those levels are risky to the general population. To reach levels toxic to most people with tea you'd likely end up concentrating it so much you'd end up eating a slurry with a spoon...
GuB-42 9y ago
Just Google it. There have been tea related deaths, though not directly related to caffeine and even tea leaves themselves. Caffeine overdose can happen but mostly from pills, you can't drink enough tea to overdose caffeine before overdosing water, which is a real thing btw. I don't like "X caused zero death" arguments. Because if something as common as drinking tea caused zero deaths, it probably means the definition of "causing death" is too narrow. Nothing is perfectly safe. Take tobacco for instance. If you restrict yourself to nicotine overdose, smoking would appear as very safe. The real killer is cancer, and you don't have a direct cause effect relationship. A big increase in probability, sure, but that lung cancer may still have been caused by something else than smoking.
red75prime 9y ago
There are probably no deaths undeniably caused by a cigarette either. Not counting the cases of death in fires caused by smoking, or choking on a cigarette.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago

It is feasible to brew enough strong tea, and drink it, to cause cardiac arrest in a susceptible individual. It's extremely unlikely someone would do that, and there's probable enough bitters in tea, especially green tea, to cause the average person to vomit before they ingested too much caffeine from tea. But what green wrote is true and correct: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/a-real-life-death-by-caffeine https://www.caffeineinformer.com/a-real-life-death-by-caffei...

vidarh 9y ago
So it seems these were mainly suicides, and it's about as relevant as blaming water for people intentionally drowning themselves. Worth noting that e.g.the doses listed under energy drinks on that page are well within ranges that have been used in various studies of impact of caffeine on athletic ability. If those levels are dangerous to some it seems likely to require a pre-existing heart problem as there seems to be exceedingly little evidence that those levels are risky to the general population. To reach levels toxic to most people with tea you'd likely end up concentrating it so much you'd end up eating a slurry with a spoon...

GuB-42 9y ago

Just Google it. There have been tea related deaths, though not directly related to caffeine and even tea leaves themselves. Caffeine overdose can happen but mostly from pills, you can't drink enough tea to overdose caffeine before overdosing water, which is a real thing btw. I don't like "X caused zero death" arguments. Because if something as common as drinking tea caused zero deaths, it probably means the definition of "causing death" is too narrow. Nothing is perfectly safe. Take tobacco for instance. If you restrict yourself to nicotine overdose, smoking would appear as very safe. The real killer is cancer, and you don't have a direct cause effect relationship. A big increase in probability, sure, but that lung cancer may still have been caused by something else than smoking.

red75prime 9y ago

There are probably no deaths undeniably caused by a cigarette either. Not counting the cases of death in fires caused by smoking, or choking on a cigarette.