Coffee has been known to produce some unpleasant effects including dehydration, irritation, yellowing teeth, bad breath, and an addiction to setting up the perfect Instagram photo. But according to the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 28, 2018 coffee contains a chemical known to cause cancer. The Court issued a tentative ruling that coffee must carry a Proposition 65 warning that it contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer. The chemical in question, acrylamide, is generated during the coffee roasting process.

A not-for-profit group sued 90 companies including coffee roasters, distributors, and retailers companies for failing to provide Proposition 65 warnings. The plaintiff group offered evidence that consumption of coffee increases the risk of harm to the fetus, to infants, to children, and to adults.

Of the companies affected is Starbucks, which has locations in nearly every community across the State. In its defense, the coffee industry maintains that the level of acrylamide in coffee is insignificant and that the chemical should be exempt from the law because it results naturally from the cooking process necessary to make the beans flavorful. Civil penalties are to be decided at the third phase of the trial with a potential of up to $2,500 per person exposed each day over eight years.

Although the tentative ruling will impose the requirement to place Proposition 65 warnings on the coffee industry, most commentators believe that the warnings will be widely ignored by consumers. This viewpoint begs the question of at what point do Proposition 65 warnings become so ubiquitous as to be irrelevant.

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