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Wake Up and Smell the Nauseating Coffee
jacobjyu writes "The NY Times is running a story about a coffee roasting plant being accused of polluting the air. The city inspector claims the smells are making people sick, however the plant owner retorts, 'This is not a smell that makes people sick ... This is one of those sweet smells like cut flowers, like fresh-baked bread, that's part and parcel of life in every city across the world.' Whatever the case, some people are claiming plastic-smelling fumes coming from the stacks: my only question is what the heck are they putting in this coffee??"
Coffee smell almost always nauseates me
I love the smell of roasted coffee, but roasted coffee starts with raw coffee. I bet the small of raw coffee as it starts to roast isn't as nice as say raw bread as it starts to cook.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
I read this article in its hard-copy form earlier today. The simple thing is that exposure to anything for long enough will make you sick of it. I'm sure many /. readers have a game they love, but if they played it 24 hours a day and had to play the same level over and over, I think they would be sick of it too. Here, the people are just smelling coffee for hours on end, and while that may a pleasant or at least tolerable smell to you or I, to someone who deals with it for hours on end, it is a very different situation. As the article says, they even get these against Krispy Kreme donuts--and who doesn't love those?
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
I live in a historic district, and we've got a roaster/coffeehouse about 8 blocks from my house. I rejoice every time I can smell them from home, because that means the breeze isn't blowing through the recycling plant a mile west of the house! OK, I'm also a coffee addict. So what?!?
I was stationed on Governors Island with the US Coast Guard back in '75, and the single most favorite thing was the smell from the giant roaster over in Brooklyn on the waterfront facing us on the island. It's changed me forever. Now I'm addicted to coffee and I blame Chock full O nuts.
Coffee plant is nauseated by YOU.
Nabisco has similar problems with their bakery in Fairlawn. You can smell the fresh baked cookies from as far away as 2 miles, if the winds are right. While their Chips Ahoy may not be as good as fresh-baked Mrs. Fields type cookies, they certainly smell just as good while being baked.
...
Anyways, the town of Fair Lawn is constantly fining them for polluting the air.
Its incredible how a town can court big business to build factories in their town, and bring jobs to their neighborhood. And as soon as the plant goes up, they start complaining about the (pick you choice of industrial byproducts) noise, heat, smell
1. Approach Large business to build plant in town.
2. Wine and dine exectives
3. Give Building Permits
4.
5. Fine
6. Profit
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The administrative code under which Gillies was cited specifies that "no person shall cause or permit the emission of air contaminant, including odorous air contaminant . . . if the air contaminant . . . may cause detriment to the health, safety, welfare or comfort of any person."
... uh ... why is this a /. story? Are we supposed to think the critical supply of roasted coffee beans is imperiled here?
That's a pretty darn broad regulation once you throw "or comfort" in at the end. The stadard boilerplate formula is "health/safety/welfare" which are considerably less subjective. Badly-worded rule right there.
As for the smell, and to be technical no one has the right to force anyone else to smell anything in particular, it's technically a nuisance and could range from baking bread to sticking offal. Usually we keep conflicts down by zoning where things like pig farming can take place.
Now, I have no trouble regulating it if the coffee really smells like "burning plastic" or even vanilla hazelnut. (Between the two I'd pick the plastic, and that's because I like coffee.) Interesting Q: How do you try this in court? Take air samples and blow them in jurors' faces? I think you'd have to have a field trip.
Anyway
I remember a few years back when there was a big roasting facility (Hills Bros. ??) at the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge. The smell was quite strong (and not as pleasant as the smell of a brewing cup). Other than being annoying to some, I have no idea about the health effects of coffee-roasting byproducts.
A number of bakeries were required by the Bay Area air folks to add pollution controls. Everyone likes the smell of baking bread but baking drives off the alcohol created by the yeast and the quantity of alcohol being released into the air was really surprising.
Still, I'd rather go after bad-smelling pollution first - I'm willing to take the risk from bread baking and fireplaces as they bring me sufficient pleasure.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Those people in the article should try living in a paper mill town sometime. Yech!
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
The first paragraph of the article notes all sorts of nasty smells - from a variety of sources - in the coffee roaster's neighborhood. Reading through the article, i didn't see ANYTHING beyond the accusation of one local resident to show that the "burning plastic" smell actually comes from the coffee place.
Reading the article again, there may only be ONE person who even claims that the smell exists. Sounds like entertaining local color & gossip with a bare minimum of real facts.
It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
There is a Folger's plant near my home town and I used to drive by there on my way to work at 6:30 in the morning. I have to say that the smell often reminded me of puke.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
Actually, the smell of roasting coffee is quite bitter. For example, if you put vodka in your penne and salmon, the particles that are vaporized is far different than the eventual flavor left in the sauce. The kitchen smells like a russian cabinet meeting, but the sauce is more balanced.
With coffee, it's far more extreme, since you're actually roasting away the impurities. It's not unlike plastic, but far more organic smelling, if that makes sense.
Personally it doesn't bother me, but I wouldn't want blowing through my house all day...
I used to hang out at the Palo Alto Roasting Company because I had some friends who preferred it over Cafe Verona. They roast their own coffee right there in the store. When the roaster is going, the smell really is overpowering.
It's not a nice pleasant thing. And this is a died-in-the-wool coffee addict talking here. I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff is harmful - they should run the smoke through some kind of scrubber or vent it somewhere where nobody will smell it. I doubt that the smoke has any environmental toxins in it, but breathing it is probably not good for your lungs.
There are several roasting plants near my place, One of which frequently does waft over my house if the wind is blowing the right way.
I can't say I mind much, but there is a difference between the smell of roasted coffee and the smell of a roasting plant at work.
Very strangely, one roaster is kitty-corner from a crematorium. It may or may not surprise you that burned Seattleites smell a lot like roasted coffee.
I grew up in a country town, right next to a large coffee factory. Loved the smell, the aroma kinda reminds me of home. And look at me, I grew up fine....
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However, anyone who has every roasted coffee knows, that roasting coffee produces very strong unpleasant odors.
Buying green coffee beans is great because they have a shelf life of several years. Once you roast a been, the whole freshness thing comes into play, and the shelf life is only a few weeks before the coffee goes stale.
Roasting your own coffee is not for the feignt of heart and should be done in a well ventalated area (not your kitchen). Outdoor ovens are perfect.
Someone you trust is one of us.
My wife used to work for a coffee packaging company. Some of their packaging couldn't be used with coffee that had artificial flavorings added because the flavorings would melt the plastic.
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1;
where they make coffee with dirt in it ;)
The guys in the office have been wondering that for weeks . . .
Volatile organic compounds, or VOC's, can be a major pollutant. I know you get quite a lot of these when you bake bread, for example. It's no big deal when you bake a few loaves at home, but a serious problem when you're talking about a large commercial bakery. I'd imagine that roasting coffee might also produce lots of different VOC's, so I wouldn't be too quick to blow off the complaints of people living near a large roastery.
"The NY Times is running a story about a paper mill being accused of polluting the air. The city inspector claims the smells are making people sick, however the plant owner retorts, 'This is not a smell that makes people sick ... This is one of those sweet smells like receiving a greeting card, opening a present, that's part and parcel of life in every city across the world.' Whatever the case, some people are claiming plastic-smelling fumes coming from the stacks: my only question is what the heck are they putting in this paper??"
Apart from personal preferences and whatever else may be going on alongside the roasting, I suspect the degree of nuisance is going to vary pretty strongly with the concentration in the air. There's a small coffee-merchant's plant about a mile across a valley from where I live - they supply many of the local restaurants - and at that distance, on that scale, the smell isn't particularly objectionable. However, I still wouldn't want to live right next door to their works, or anywhere in the neighborhood of one of the industrial-scale manufacturers.
I used metylene chloride (CH2Cl2) as a solvent in organic chemistry class. It has smells like something you would dilute paint with (duh!).
Not very unpleasant really, but nothing you would want to smell the first thing in the morning!
I can just see it now. Bringing in Uncle bob to get cremated and he just ends up as Starbucks' taste of the week. Yummy.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
Really. There is no stinky coffee plant.
It's just that the area has finally reached Starbucks Overload.
I live next to a coffee-roasting facility. Ah, the sweet smeel of the stuff that they burn off the coffee before they give it to us. We all hate it, but I'm only here when it happens once a month or so, as it's usually during the day and so I avoid the smell. At least they have timed it so most people would be at work when it happens.
"'This is not a smell that makes people sick ... This is one of those sweet smells like cut flowers, like fresh-baked bread, that's part and parcel of life in every city across the world.'"
Oh right, like the smell of a monkey's butt, right? Drink up - drink ass!
--"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
... my own experience. Ahh, the smell of burning cow entrails! It's enough to make one go veg.
. . .this isn't a Soylent Green Factory?!
We have a coffee factory here in my city (Utrecht, the Netherlands), and when the wind is right, wherever you go, you will smell burnt toast (that's what it reminds me of, at any rate). It's disgusting, but it's not overpowering.
I wonder where they get the burnt plastic smell from in the other place?
Cheers,
CvD.
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