We have written about how one of the excellent benefits of organic coffee is the lack of unnecessary contaminants. While there are “regular” coffees that are organic in everything but name because of the cost of certification, the bulk of coffee that folks consume is grown and processed with exposure to synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and other potentially dangerous contaminants. Just how prevalent are contaminants in regular coffee and what is the real health risk?
Testing Popular Coffee Brands for Contaminants
While much of the early evidence of contaminants in regular coffee comes from research studies, those studies did not necessarily test all that many brands in coming to their conclusions. However, the Clean Label Project did more than seven thousand tests on dozens of coffee brands for contaminants and published its results which identify a broad range of contaminants throughout. Here is a snapshot of their results and our thoughts on the significance of coffee contaminants.
Contaminants Found in Popular Coffee Brands
The Clean Label Project found heavy metals, herbicide residue and pesticides in many of the regular coffees that they tested. Glyphosate (Round Up Herbicide and its breakdown product, AMPA, where also found. Why did they test for these contaminants?
Heavy Metals in Coffee
Why are there heavy metals in coffee? Coffee plants absorb minerals from the soil in which they are grown. The higher the concentration of a mineral in the soil, the greater the concentration of that mineral in the coffee bean. In addition, industrial runoff, pesticides, and unsafe farming practices can also result in more heavy metal contamination. Cadmium, Lead, Mercury and Arsenic can all be found as coffee contaminants and all have adverse health effects when consumed in sufficient amounts.
Arsenic Effects on Health
Arsenic in sufficient amounts can result in heart disease, cancer and skin lesions over time. These are results of chronic low grade exposure such as one might expect from food or beverage contamination. These differ from arsenic poisoning in lethal amounts which cause vomiting, nausea, tingling, confusion, seizures, and death. In general the amounts of arsenic in coffee are never enough to cause poisoning symptoms and rarely enough to cause chronic issues like cancer and heart disease but vulnerable individuals such as pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems.
Effects of Lead on Human Health
Lead is a toxic metal with many industrial uses, which can lead to lead poisoning such as with lead paint or leaded gasoline. Its effects on human health are cumulative. They include neurological damage, damage to the gi tract, heart, blood vessels, and kidneys. Children are more vulnerable than adults to lead poisoning as are pregnant women. Severe cumulative lead exposure can be fatal. Lead in food and drinks largely comes from packaging or soil contamination. However, lead in the soil can be found in otherwise safe foods such as coffee beans.
Health Effects of Mercury
Mercury can be found in various industrial settings and can be a serious problem with fish caught in contaminated waters. It can be found in coffee when the soil has high concentrations. Mercury can damage the immune and nervous systems as well as the kidneys. Mercury poisoning is not likely with drinking coffee but long term low concentrations of mercury can be dangerous.
Pesticides in Coffee
Control of coffee pests can be an issue on a working coffee farm. On non-organic farms pesticides may be used. Long term pesticide exposure can damage the reproductive endocrine and nervous systems, lead to cancers, and cause developmental problems in children.
Herbicides in Coffee
A commonly used herbicide used worldwide is Roundup containing glyphosate. Although the testing by the Clean Label Project did not find any glyphosate in their testing they did encounter a glyphosate breakdown product, AMPA. AMPA has been linked to endocrine dysfunction leading to reproductive issues, hormone levels, fertility, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, tumors, and problems with the blood, liver, and heart.
Long Term Coffee Consumption and Health
As we have written about many times, drinking coffee over the long term is linked to many health benefits including a reduction in type II diabetes, cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and more. As such it would appear that across the broad spectrum of coffees that whatever degree of contamination exists, there does not seem to a sufficient problem to reduce many benefits of drinking coffee. Nevertheless, coffee drinkers are well advised to be wary of non-organic coffees that may contain more than trace amounts of contaminants in order to be on the safe side.