Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-08
The Beijing Food and Drug Administration unveiled four Chinese varieties of tea that contain rare earth metal up to 3.5 times the regulated limit, reports our Chinese language sister newspaper Want Daily.
Planters of Da Hong Pao pick tea leaves on Wuyi Mountain, May 2014. (File photo/ Xinhua) |
The Beijing Food and Drug Administration unveiled four Chinese varieties of tea that contain rare earth metal up to 3.5 times the regulated limit, reports our Chinese language sister newspaper Want Daily.
The teas
that were named are: Tieguanyin from Anxi in Fujian, Longjing from Guangshan,
Henan, Da Hong Pao from the Wuyi Mountain region and black tea from Jiangsu
province. All of these are popular varieties, specifically Tieguanyin and
Longjing, which have been listed in China's top ten premium selections of teas.
Among those
named, the Da Hong Pao, a prime variety of oolong tea from Wuyi Mountain,
contains 6.9 milligrams (mg) of rare earth element, almost 3.5 times the
maximum quantity of 2 mg allowed per kilogram. The Tieguanyin from Fujian
follows with 6.9 mg/kg.
The tea
from Fujian is most frequently found to have excessive amounts of heavy metal
pollutants. Certain Longjing teas, in addition to containing rare earth metal,
have misleading labels boasting a higher quality tea than what tests show.
The
varieties in questions have been removed from market shelves.
It is long
been known that tea grown in China contain excessive amount of rare earth
elements, which are added into chemical fertilizers used by 90% of tea farmers
to stimulate growth, which in turn produces more buds and heavier leaves,
according to reports from China's NetEase news portal.
Tea
producers, however, say that the issue with too much rare earth elements is
exclusive to China as there is no other nation regulating consumable quantities
of the metal. They also claim that the rare earth is part of the natural makeup
of the soil, instead of from fertilizers. Based on these arguments, the farmers
are calling for a revision of the regulations.
Rare earth
is a set of 17 chemical elements that occur in nature, with China being a major
global producer. It is widely applied in chemical engineering, metallurgy,
weaving and other industries.
Overdoses
of the heavy metal could damage the kidneys, liver, neural system and
fertility.
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