Yeah I know, it depends on for how long you boil the water, among a lot of things, so I would still be cautious, personally. If the cotton pad works, one should probably continue using that. I would give it a go if I had this issue. I do not see how it could hurt to try. There are many things that are either useful or harmless, I think this is one of these.
WHO recommends boiling water for 60 seconds for making it safe to drink. The moment you hear the water boil and walking to kettle and make preparations take more than that amount, and the water you're boiling is safe to drink (it's not tap water and tested against harmful bacteria) to begin with.
Of course one needs to be cautious depending on what they have at hand, and yes, tea is harmless at worst and pretty useful at best.
It soothes your eyes too, so you can try it even if your eyes feel a bit tired.
Safe to drink is different from safe to use as eye drop though.
Anyways, it is besides the point I think, so no need to beat the dead horse here. :)
Just to give you some folk-medicine too: we went to a herbal store where the lady is quite knowledgeable in it, and many times she immediately knew what the actual issue was and what the cure is. My grandma kept going to dermatologists, GP about some skin problem and no one knew! Not one doctor! Not even the dermatologist. My grandma visited this lady and she was like "the problem is going to be the bile, grab this tea, drink it, and it should solve the problem". To our miracle, it did!
So... just to think that with regarding to a skin problem not even a dermatologist could help but some random lady without any medical school at a herbal store could, with a tea for bile, is crazy.
I have a question: would this black tea cotton pad thing work to soothe the eyes in general? I keep getting these white things in my eyes for some reason (the production of it right now is wild), and I wonder if it could help. I might give it a try. I know it can't hurt.
Generally you are correct, but just remember that we never adviced against diving in sea water with eyes open. Don't think black tea should be a problem, considering that the water has been thoroughly heated before.
Yes, you can take my comment as nitpicking I suppose, since you do not have to drop anything in your eyes to be supposedly effective. I have no idea because I have not tried it myself but I do not see why I would not give this easy, cheap, and convenient method a try were I to have this issue.
We have a lot of "folk medicine" around this neck of the woods, too, and many of them do work great.
