Flawed is flawed

Every once in a while you see something on the news that is just a head-scratcher. It was reported on the evening news that a group in California has filed suit so that coffee is labelled as a product that causes cancer.

Now on the surface of that, I suppose that it is good that someone is looking out for the rest of us. Apparently everything in the State California seems to cause cancer. Now, I'm not the smartest bean in the hopper but I'm not an idiot either. The report stated that there is an ingredient in coffee that is also found in many other plant based common foods including such things as bread. (I apologize that I don't remember the actual name of the chemical). That is actually immaterial.

But even to the idiot bean the study is flawed beyond belief. Mice were given doses of 1000 to 100,000 times the doses that a person would consume. I would hazard a guess that nearly everything on the planet given to an organism at that dosage would cause cancer. In my view the science is bad and therefore does not warrant a lawsuit.

I understand one can not monitor every possible thing over time to determine if it is a health risk. Entire generations would or could fall victim to a true health hazard, but to continue to do this type of study is nothing but a hoax. I'm not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV, nor did I sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but this type of research simply cannot continue. The scientific world needs to look at itself and come up with another method of determining carcinogens.

I for one am glad I don't live in the Land of Fruit and Nuts. They might as well just put a label on everything in that state and say it causes cancer. Buyer beware.