California Ruling on Carcinogen in Coffee Shouldn't Keep You From a Second Cup
Chemistry's Michelle Francl is among the scientists recently interviewed by The Washington Post who say a California regulation aimed at protecting employees from carcinogens and toxic chemicals may be causing unnecessary alarm.
As reported by the Post, "Prop 65 requires businesses with at least 10 employees to disclose any carcinogens and toxic chemicals in their products" and a recent lawsuit has resulted in many coffee retailers having to add a cancer-warning label to coffee.
The problem is, the carcinogen in question has only been shown to be dangerous in lab rats at doses of 1,000 to 10,000 times what humans consume.
From the article:
“The name, ‘acrylamide,’ it makes it sound scary,” said Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. But, she pointed out, a liquid labeled “oxidane” sounds ominous, even though that’s a fancy term for water.
Bryn Mawr’s Chemistry Department has a more than century-long tradition of combining high quality, visible research programs with excellent teaching. The Chemistry Department seeks to provide a supportive and rigorous curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate level to students having diverse preparation and diverse goals.