Court’s ruling is a storm in a coffee cup
It was laughable to read (Opinion, April 3) that a court penalised Starbucks because they couldn’t prove that coffee “can’t” cause cancer. It’s impossible to prove that anything can’t cause cancer.
The reason for this hysteria is that acrylanide, which is found in coffee, has been linked to cancer. And what is this assumption based on? Mice were given 1000 to 10,000 times as much acrylanide as a human would normally consume in his food. Since a major factor in determining the toxicity of a substance is based on the amount consumed it makes those experiments completely ridiculous.
Furthermore the way a mouse responds to a substance doesn’t even necessarily tell you how a rat will respond, much less a human. But hey, vivisectors have to make a living! Soon someone will be sitting in a bar with a cheeseburger in one hand, a cigarette in the other and a shot of whiskey in front of him and will think of himself as a health nut because he doesn’t drink coffee!
Eric Bahrt
Chiang Mai
