We’re back after a long hiatus and today we’re defending the coffee industry.  Recently a group of coffee retailers in California had a lawsuit slapped against them saying that under Proposition 65, a 1986 law requiring businesses to label cancer-causing products.   Research shows that coffee kinda, sorta, maybe, theoretically, etc. could cause cancer – if the planets align right.    In addition to paying a hefty fine, these retailers will be required to label their products as potentially hazardous from here on out.

The reality is that the research behind the claims that coffee causes cancer is dubious and overblown.  In moderation coffee is a healthy beverage (black coffee, that is, maybe not a triple mocha unicorn espresso or whatever).  The sad thing about these kinds of frivolous lawsuits is that if everything causes cancer, then people will eventually become desensitized to it.   I can say with a great degree of certainty that exactly zero people will be swayed away from drinking coffee by the new label.

The cigarette labels are a little bit different of a story – because it’s common sense that cigarettes are harmful.   The coffee labels will just make a mockery out of “public health”.