Bringing healthy low-fluoride tea into the hands of the Tibetan people
The Tibetan people have had the custom of drinking tea in large quantities since ancient times; tea is an important part of their traditional diet, and drinking butter tea with all three daily meals is the dietary habit of most people.
Basic data collection on fluorosis across the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2006 showed that all 74 counties and districts are tea-drinking-type fluorosis areas. Moreover, Tibet has carried out monitoring of tea-drinking-type fluorosis for many consecutive years, and in 2019 conducted a survey of the current state of the disease across the whole region. In the same year, field surveys were carried out in villages across all 74 counties and districts where drinking border-sale tea is customary.
These investigations and studies indicate that long-term excessive intake of fluoride causes irreversible damage to teeth, bones, and the body’s overall metabolism. Therefore, in 2019, China’s National Ethnic Affairs Commission and six other ministries and commissions issued the “Notice on Further Promoting Low-Fluoride Border-Sale Tea,” aiming to gradually help the public form an awareness of healthy tea drinking.
In 2021, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 70th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet — and to implement the “Notice on Further Promoting Low-Fluoride Border-Sale Tea” issued by the National Ethnic Affairs Commission and six other ministries and commissions, to cultivate healthy tea-drinking habits among the farmers and herders of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and to effectively advance the Healthy Tibet initiative — the Pu’er Municipal Party Committee and Government, together with the Department of Commerce of the Tibet Autonomous Region, jointly held a ceremony on August 7, 2021, marking the dispatch of 5,000 tonnes of low-fluoride Pu’er tea from Pu’er City to Tibet. A campaign to bring healthy low-fluoride tea into the hands of the Tibetan people thus began.
Recently, the head of this publication’s new media department also visited several low-fluoride Pu’er tea suppliers in Pu’er City, making field visits to learn and understand the production techniques and to feel the passion for sharing quality, healthy low-fluoride Pu’er tea with our Tibetan compatriots.
Starting this week, we will use videos to tell and share with more friends the stories of “low-fluoride Pu’er tea” — stories of sustained concern for health, of care for our ethnic minority compatriots, and of a rich display of minority tea cultures… Follow us, and let us together see more of what Pu’er tea can be.
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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