A study has found that smokers and drinkers should avoid drinking hot tea as it can increase the risk of esophageal cancer.

Esophageal cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the esophagus

The study published in the Journal of Annals of Internal Medicine, the cancer which starts in the esophagus was already known to be linked to smoking, but those risks are heightened by the addition of daily cups of "burning hot" tea.

The risks to smokers also increase with high-temperature tea drinking, said the study, which examined data on 456,155 Chinese adults ages 30 to 79. Lv Jun, of Peking University Health Science Centre in China, who co-authored the study, told The Telegraph: "Boiling hot tea will harm the cells in the oesophagus.

"If the person also smokes, then the harm caused will be more heightened." 

At the start of the study, none of the participants had cancer. Researchers followed half of the participants for at least nine years.

During the study, 1,731 people developed esophageal tumours.