Warning Labels

Never minding a number of studies that indicate that coffee intake ranges from harmless to net beneficial, California has decided to require coffee companies must put cancer warning labels on their coffee.  Even more ludicrous, the presiding judge, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle wrote in part,

Defendants failed to satisfy their burden of proving…that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health.

This is the wrong criterion and the wrong holder of the burden.  California alleged carcigenic risk; it’s on them to prove the risk.  Beyond that, it’s not the State’s function to demand proof of beneficial outcomes; it’s the State’s function to demand lack of material harm.

I’m waiting for California’s warning labels on grapes, since their fermentation carries empirically demonstrated DUI risks.

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