A quarter-century on, WHO drops claim that coffee is a carcinogen

Cory Doctorow 11:01 am Wed Jun 15, 2016

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed 1,000+ papers investigating the link between coffee and cancer and concluded that the WHO's 1991 classification of coffee as a carcinogen was mistaken.

The IARC does say that "very hot beverages" are a potential carcinogen, though.

A group of 23 scientists convened by the IARC concluded “that there was inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking overall.”

The scientists found that many epidemiological studies showed that coffee drinking had no carcinogenic effects for cancers of the pancreas, female breast and prostate, and that “reduced risks were seen for cancers of the liver and uterine endometrium. For more than 20 other cancers, the evidence was inconclusive.”

World Health Organization Drops Coffee’s Status as Possible Carcinogen
[Julie Jargon and Mike Esterl/WSJ]

(via Skepchick)

(Image: Petr Kratochvil, PD)

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