California regulators ruled Monday that the link between coffee and cancer is not significant, a decision that would allow businesses to remove ominous warning signs that were mandated.
Last year, a judge determined that coffee retailers must warn customers under Proposition 65, the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, under which businesses are required to be clear about any harmful ingredients or chemicals they propagate.
Acrylamide – a byproduct that comes from roasting coffee beans – is listed as a carcinogen in California. Studies have shown mixed results about the link between acrylamide and cancer, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said.
This week, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the deciding agency for California, said coffee is safe to drink based on the results of more than 1,000 studies that found no substantial evidence linking coffee to cancer.
Sam Delson, a spokesperson for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, said coffee is a mix of hundreds of chemicals – carcinogens and anti-carcinogens. “The overall effect of coffee consumption is not associated with any significant cancer risk,” Delson said.
“We represent an industry that brews the number one source of antioxidants in the US diet. Dozens of studies suggest that coffee drinkers live longer, have healthier hearts and are happier,” William Murray, president and CEO of the National Coffee Association USA, said in a news release.
A lawsuit, brought in 2010 by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, filed for civil penalties and injunctive relief under proposition 65. They asked that businesses carrying ready-to-drink coffee products should post a warning on a 10-inch-by-10-inch sign.
FILE – This March 30, 2018 file photo shows a Proposition 65 warning sign behind a coffee mug at a Starbucks coffee shop in Burbank, Calif.
California passed a law 30 years ago that any product containing chemicals linked to birth defects or cancer must be labeled as having cancer-causing agents. This was the first time, according to Delson, that the state deemed such a large combination of chemicals containing carcinogens to be safe.
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The Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a small nonprofit group, is set to challenge the state’s regulation in court, according to Raphael Metzger, the group’s attorney.
Metzger’s firm, Metzger Law Group, has a history of taking on litigation involving acrylamide.
He has represented the Council for Education and Research on Toxics in another suit against Starbucks and 90 other coffee companies. The firm represented the group in 2002 in its lawsuit, Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) v. McDonald’s and Burger King. Both cases focused on acrylamide.
Metzger said that this week’s ruling cannot be retroactively applied and that the regulation is in violation of state law in California.
Contributing: Ashley May, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coffee actually doesn’t pose cancer risk, California finds; warning signs can come down