Unexpectedly, however, because tea trees absorb fluorine from soil and air during their growth, they are stored in roots and leaves. However, brick tea is used to processing with coarse old leaves, and Tibetans on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are used to cooking for a long time, so excessive fluorine is released into tea, which harms the health of Tibetans, causing many Tibetan children to suffer from dental fluorosis, and the elderly suffer from skeletal fluorosis and rickets, which greatly limits their activities and makes them suffer from unbearable pain.
Professor Cao Jin from Xiangya Medical College of Central South University and his research team, including many Tibetans and other ethnic minorities, went deep into the plateaus, canyons, snowy areas and deserts of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Tibet in 1994, and spent thirteen years investigating and looking for ways to rescue them.
However, the lack of funds, the threat of diseases such as mountain sickness, the harsh climate and even the ever-changing world are all difficulties. The departmentalism of bureaucratic departments and even academic institutions is sometimes as harsh as nature for this dentist-born scholar. Long before he studied fluorosis, an "academic authority" in the school pointed out that "doctors are not like doctors and farmers are not like farmers, so let him die", which prompted him to bid farewell to dental chairs and embark on the road of scientific research, specializing in tea and health preservation 18 years. At the same time, the Wisteria Tea Club of Central South University was established, which was praised by Xinhua News Agency as "the first tea performance team in China universities". Many excellent children of Wisteria have spread all over the world, and they are still grateful to this fatherly teacher.
Cao Jin is a scholar who can put aside life and death for scientific research. He sticks to the bottom line of science, morality and conscience and doesn't like academic people who are obsessed with officialdom. He also wants to know that over the past decade, foundations and individuals in the United States, Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong have provided nearly 10 million yuan for the research on brick tea fluorosis. Why?
Because the investigation of brick tea fluorosis is unprofitable and the government and scientific research institutions don't know much about it, it is difficult to raise enough funds to support this project, so Professor Cao has to pay for it himself. After 1995, the plan was forced to give up again and again. 1March, 1998, I went to Taiwan, and with the help of Wisteria and others, I was able to resume the plan. After that, with the support of many well-intentioned people in Taiwan Province Province, Hong Kong entrepreneur Zang Lianbao, American Chinese Medical Foundation and Tzu Chi Foundation, the project was completed and low-fluorine brick tea was developed. Since 2004, Tzu Chi has implemented the "Tzu Chi Aid Tibet Low Fluorine Brick Tea Plan". In 2007, the rescue operation of low-fluorine brick tea finally achieved results, which reduced the fluoride intake of the people and greatly alleviated the symptoms of nervous system damage caused by fluorosis.
But in some areas, there are Tibetan rumors that Han people brought low-fluorine brick tea for experiments. After studying with him, Dr. Tenzin, a Tibetan partner in Cao Jin, made a new plan, that is, to popularize science in field work and establish harmonious interpersonal relationships, because such a large-scale work would be unthinkable without the cooperation of Tibetans.
Tibet and Taiwan Province Province, which are far apart, have an indissoluble bond because of brick tea. A China scholar and his Tibetan colleagues also worked closely together to unlock the password of brick tea, and even shared life and death, which was touching.