REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU COFFEE WAS BAD FOR YOU!
by Hazed
Oh no! Coffee gives you cancer! At least, it does in California, where a judge has ordered major coffee chains to put a cancer warning on cups of coffee.
Los Angeles Superior Court judge Elihu Berle issued a ruling that state law decrees Starbucks and other coffee chains will have to put up a notice that compounds present in coffee can cause cancer.
He wrote in his decision, “The Court concluded that Defendants failed to meet their burden of proof by preponderance of evidence on their affirmative defenses of ‘no significant risk level’, First Amendment, and federal preemption to avoid the requirement of cancer hazard warning labels as to the existence of acrylamide in brewed coffee.”
So should you worry? Well, no. Not even if you live in California. This ruling is because of the state’s Proposition 65, which was intended to warn the public that a business or facility is storing potentially hazardous materials. This includes substances known to cause cancer and birth defects.
The problem with coffee is not the beans themselves, it’s a chemical component called Acrylamide, which is created when the beans are roasted and brewed, and ends up in the drink.
Technically, Acrylamide is considered to be a cancer risk in high doses. But no study has shown that the dose likely to end up in a cup of coffee is anything like high enough to raise the risk of cancer.
In fact, some studies have shown that other compounds present in coffee can actually reduce your risk of cancer.
But the law is an ass (according to Mr Bumble in Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist), so in order to abide by the letter of the law, the warning signs have to go up.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/30/california_coffee_cancer_warning/
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/22816-it-was-all-mrs-bumble-she-would-do-it-urged
