Tejal Somvanshi
A large UK study has found that the temperature at which you drink hot beverages matters more than many people realise. Researchers from Oxford Population Health examined data on nearly two million UK adults tracked over more than a decade, publishing their findings in the International Journal of Cancer.
The study combined two major datasets: the UK Biobank and the Million Women Study, covering approximately 977,000 and 980,000 participants respectively. Over 10 to 14 years of follow-up, researchers recorded self-reported consumption of warm, hot, and very hot drinks.
The results were stark. Very hot beverages carried roughly three times the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) compared to warm drinks. Hot drinks carried nearly double the risk. When researchers looked at frequency, people consuming six or more hot drinks daily had a 71 percent higher SCC risk after accounting for temperature.
The mechanism appears straightforward: repeated thermal injury to the oesophageal lining. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies beverages hotter than 65 degrees Celsius as probably carcinogenic, not because of the liquid itself but because of the heat damage.
An important context emerged from the research. No association appeared between hot drinks and oesophageal adenocarcinoma, only the squamous cell type. The absolute lifetime risk of developing SCC in the UK remains low at around one percent. Smoking and alcohol consumption remain substantially larger risk factors than drink temperature.
The research team did not establish an exact safe cooling time. Cancer Research UK‘s guidance is practical: simply wait until your drink is comfortable to consume before drinking it. This single behavioural change could reduce one potential cancer pathway without requiring people to abandon hot beverages altogether.
The distinction matters. This is not a recommendation to avoid tea, coffee, or hot water altogether. Millions of people drink these beverages daily. The finding addresses a specific risk that can be mitigated by a simple adjustment—allowing drinks to cool to a comfortable temperature before consumption.
The study’s size and duration give its findings weight. Following nearly two million people for over a decade provides substantial evidence beyond smaller, shorter studies. The researchers used established epidemiological methods and drew from populations with detailed health records.
What makes this research valuable is precisely what makes it unglamorous: it identifies a modifiable behaviour. Many cancer risk factors lie outside individual control. This one does not. The cost of implementation is negligible—a few minutes of patience.
For heavy tea or coffee drinkers, the finding deserves consideration. Six hot drinks daily is not unusual for some people. For them, temperature becomes a meaningful variable. For occasional drinkers, the risk remains proportionally small. Either way, the evidence now exists: temperature matters, and cooling matters too.
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