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Coffee Requires Cancer Warning, California Judge Rules (cnbc.com)

Scientists haven't rendered a verdict on whether coffee is good or bad for you but a California judge has. He says coffee sellers in the state should have to post cancer warnings. From a report: The culprit is a chemical produced in the bean roasting process that is a known carcinogen and has been at the heart of an eight-year legal struggle between a tiny nonprofit group and Big Coffee. The Council for Education and Research on Toxics wanted the coffee industry to remove acrylamide from its processing -- like potato chip makers did when it sued them years ago -- or disclose the danger in ominous warning signs or labels. The industry, led by Starbucks, said the level of the chemical in coffee isn't harmful and any risks are outweighed by benefits. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said Wednesday that the coffee makers hadn't presented the proper grounds at trial to prevail.

23 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. Send your garbage to court by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Funny

    the coffee makers hadn't presented the proper grounds

    So what do they do with all their waste product?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    1. Re:Send your garbage to court by Adolf+Hitler,+Jr. · · Score: 4, Funny

      It is typically soaked in another potential carcinogen DHMO (unproven thus far) and sold to innocent civilians at less-than-lethal doses whenever a cinnamon roll or bagel is sold on an individual basis.

      It is much like how Alcoa took waste from the aluminum refining process 70-80 years ago and managed to sell it to cities to put in their water supplies.

  2. Pun alert by computer_tot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Proper grounds. I see what you did there.

    1. Re:Pun alert by bobbied · · Score: 4, Funny

      Guide to opening a coffee shop:

      1) Make a list of all the puns you can think of using the words "grind," "grounds," and "bean," e.g. "Stomping Grounds," "The Daily Grind" etc. 2) Cross off every item on the list that is a pun 3) Name your business "Joe's Coffee Shop"

      So.. Your motto is... "Get your cup o' Joe at Joe's?" then?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Pun alert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Argh! Curses, a stealthy pun slipped in there anyway! Damn you all to hell!!

      No can do, McDonalds might sue us for their trademarked "Coffee, hot as hell"...

    3. Re:Pun alert by TeknoHog · · Score: 5, Funny

      No can do, McDonalds might sue us for their trademarked "Coffee, hot as hell"...

      My hipster friends used to go to McD for their coffee. They wanted to drink it before it was cool.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  3. Pointless labels by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When everything has to have a warning label the labels start being ignored. Maybe it's time to just start saying everything in California causes cancer and call it a day?

    1. Re:Pointless labels by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

      I bought a 5' chunk of maple 1x2 and it had the same label.

      Trees cause cancer in California... well now I've seen everything.

      Some tree based products CAN cause cancer. No idea if any in Maple can, but the wood was probably something that "causes cancer in California". As long as you use the product somewhere other than California though you're probably safe.

      That's why I haven't moved to California, I don't want cancer.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  4. numb to actual danagers by mehtars · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Putting too many warning labels has the habit of making people numb to actual dangers and warning labels.

    1. Re:numb to actual danagers by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

      The warning requirement is due to Proposition 65, a citizen's ballot initiative which passed in 1986 (I was too young to vote then, but did my best to try to warn people how stupid it was going to be if it passed). The judge's hands here are mostly tied. According to the proposition, if there are studies which show a material can cause cancer (not just in people but in laboratory animals), then the warning is required. I've often joked that it should be required above every exit door since sunlight is known to cause cancer.

      The warning is pretty much useless now - every store and nearly every product has it so it carries zero information value. The only function it now serves is to enrich a small group of lawyers who go around filing lawsuits against small businesses (mostly owned by new immigrants who have no idea such a silly law could exist) who failed to buy a $5 warning placard to post somewhere in their business. They usually manage to wrestle $2k to $10k from the small business to settle the lawsuit.

  5. Idiotic by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Indeed, this is idiotic.

    There is ample evidence showing that coffee is surprisingly good for you. Saying it has to be labelled a "carcinogen" is doing nothing to help anybody's health, but is contributing to people ignoring warning labels, which is not a good thing. California's laws are stupid and counterproductive.

      http://time.com/4116129/coffee-longer-life/

    http://www.webmd.com/alzheimer...

    https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/this-is-your-brain-on-coffee/

    http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/11/16/456191657/drink-to-your-health-study-links-daily-coffee-habit-to-longevity

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Idiotic by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's contributing to the bank account of the lawyer who brought the lawsuit.

      Apparently in California an individual can bring a lawsuit "on behalf of the state" and then keep at least some of the damages.

    2. Re:Idiotic by syn3rg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm beginning to think California judges may need a stupidity warning label.

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    3. Re:Idiotic by syn3rg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If only that lawyer had to pay court costs and fines if they lost.

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      The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
    4. Re:Idiotic by Megol · · Score: 4, Informative

      It can be reduced but AFAIK not be eliminated. Acrylamide is created in the roasting process.

      And the blurb is wrong - acrylamide have been reduced in chips but not eliminated. This by improving the processing, controlling temperatures better etc.

    5. Re:Idiotic by srmalloy · · Score: 5, Informative

      From TFA: "The culprit is a chemical produced in the bean roasting process that is a known carcinogen". Acrylamide in foods, including coffee, appears to be a byproduct of the Maillard reaction (the darker you make your toast, the more acrylamide you consume, for example, and bread crust itself contains acrylamide); it's also found in cigarette smoke, and is the primary source of exposure by smokers. An article about acrylamide points out that it has been part of humanity's diet for as long as we've been cooking our food.

    6. Re:Idiotic by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's a property of the bean (actually a seed) itself, and it occurs from simply heating it. The same is also true of potatoes (exact same carcinogen as well) and an existing solution is genetic modification. Thanks to the organic lobby and Greenpeace's FUD campaign, you'll never see it on store shelves, however.

      I imagine the same would be needed for coffee, unless you add another chemical process to remove it after it is already ground, much like you would for decaffeinated coffee.

    7. Re:Idiotic by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Land of fruits and nuts" indeed.

      Indeed!!

      And yet...we STILL allow CA to dictate so much about what happens and what is allowed across the US.

      They have waaaaay too much power over what the rest of us have to deal with in our lives...from gas mileage, to restrictions on what you can/can't buy or manufacture, etc.

      Hell we give Californial Special Waivers all the time it seems from Federal laws.

      If you wanna live in the land of flakes and nuts, ok, but we shouldn't allow it all to spread across the nation of states that have very different populations, geographic needs and environments.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  6. Well, if coffee needs a cancer warning... by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... then so does toast.

    Acrylamide isn't an additive. Trace quantities of acrylamide are a byproduct of the Maillard (browning) reaction in certain foods. If you think about it, toasted bread isn't that different from roasted coffee; it's dry heat applied to seed proteins and sugars. People have been consuming it pretty much as long as they've been cooking things other than meat.

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    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  7. What about warning labels on research? by houghi · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should put warning labels on research as well. It has been proven that scientific research causes cancer in rats.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  8. If everything is $property, nothing is by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If everything is critical, nothing is. If everything is important, nothing is. If everything is a carcinogen, nothing is.

    Unless you put a qualifier next to it, it's meaningless because it voids any importance the label could originally have had. There is a difference in how likely it's gonna kill you, and this has to be stressed. Yes, working as a liquidator for Chernobyl, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee are all likely going to cause cancer in you. But one is quite certainly going to kill you quite soon, one is likely to kill you somewhere in the future and one is ... well, we don't know but might kill you ... at some point in time.

    And unless we establish some kind of way to differentiate between them, such labels will lose all meaning they might have had. If I can't avoid doing or eating something that is labeled as "causes cancer", why bother trying to avoid any of them?

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Rating System? [Re:numb to actual danagers] by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Putting too many warning labels has the habit of making people numb to actual dangers and warning labels.

    It's not a problem with warnings themselves, but of weighing the level of risk. The labels don't give one any sense of risk degree. Perhaps we need a rating system, similar to movie ratings or Dept. of Homeland Security's "Homeland Security Advisory System" rating colors (which have since been altered in confusing ways).

    By the way, the warnings are required by Proposition 65, which was voted into CA law. It's not meddling gov't, but meddling voters.

    Let's make it better instead of throwing it out.

  10. Re:In keeping with other precedents by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 4, Informative

    This sounds to be in line with previous court judgements. Yes your coffee is hot. Put a sign on it.

    You're alluding to the infamous McDonalds case. On the surface it seems nuts and it may still be a case of a stupid jury reaching a stupid verdict, but there are things about the case that are not known by the general public. I have a good friend who is a lawyer and we talked about this.

    1) McDonalds kept serving coffee at a temperature very close to boiling and about 20 to 30 degrees higher than their competitors. The problem wasn't that some dumb person didn't know that hot coffee is hot but that McDonalds was deliberately serving it at an undrinkably high temperature.
    2)McDonalds received a lot of complaints about the too high temperature of their coffee and refused to do anything about it. They received many hundreds of complaints.
    3)The old lady who got burned did basically accidentally pour it on herself, but the case argument was that had the coffee been at a normal temperature of 20-30 degrees lower like McDonalds competitors served, she would not have suffered devastating burns that required hospitalization.
    4)The lady's attorneys tried to settle the case out of court and McDonalds refused.
    5)The original verdict was reduced by a judge as being excessive and she didn't end up with a million dollars, although she was awarded over $600,000.