In the US of A, a California judge on Wednesday has ruled that coffee requires a health warning.
The culprit is a chemical produced in the bean roasting process that is a known carcinogen and has been at the heart of an eight-year legal struggle between a tiny non-profit group and Big Coffee.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said that the coffee industry hadn't presented the proper grounds at trial to prevail – and so, they should have to post a cancer cautionary.
The Council for Education and Research on Toxics wanted the coffee industry to remove acrylamide from its processing – like potato chip makers did when it sued them years ago – or disclose the danger in ominous warning signs/labels.
The industry, led by Starbucks Corp, said the level of the chemical in coffee isn't harmful and any risk(s) are outweighed by benefits.
The suit was brought against Starbucks and 90 other companies under a controversial law passed by California voters in 1986 that has been credited with culling cancer-causing chemicals from myriad products and also criticized for leading to quick settlement shakedowns.
The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, better known as Proposition 65, requires warning labels for about 900 chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects. It allows private citizens, advocacy groups and attorneys to sue on behalf of the state and collect a portion of civil penalties for failure to provide warnings.
The defendants have a couple weeks to challenge the ruling before it is final and could seek relief from an appellate court.
If the ruling stands, it could come with a stiff financial penalty and could rattle consumers beyond state lines.
The judge can set another phase of trial to consider potential civil penalties up to $2,500 per person exposed each day over eight years. That could be an astronomical sum in a state with close to 40 million residents, though such a massive fine is unlikely.
California's outsized market could make it difficult to tailor packaging with warning stickers specifically to stores in the state.
That means out-of-state coffee drinkers could also take their coffee with a cancer warning. Cream and sugar would still be optional.
On Thursday, I was in Putrajaya for a Toastmasters meeting. In fact, I received the invitation that morning itself from Zarina Abu Bakar, who is that club’s mentor.
She was kind to arrange for me to give a 10-minute presentation on D51 Annual Conference 2018 and on top of that, I was also given the task to evaluate an Ice Breaker speech. Btw, I was voted Best Speech Evaluator.
Only an eight-month-old club, the PTD Toastmasters Club of Putrajaya – which held its meeting at the Ministry of Higher Education – showed its commitment and more importantly, energy and enthusiasm that were all so self-evident. I enjoyed the meeting very much!
PPTD is Persatuan Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik Malaysia.