As long as we don't run out of chemicals, we will never run out of chemical scares. Most are unfounded, especially the current one – that the use of methylene chloride to decaffeinate coffee will somehow harm you. The numbers say otherwise. There is nothing to worry about here.
If you've already read this recent story on the CNN news site, perhaps it's not too late to get back the deposit on the casket you may have put down in sheer terror after reading the article: "Is decaf coffee safe to drink? Experts weigh in on claims by health advocacy groups." It's as fine an example of non-fine science as a bunch of non-experts could imagine: grotesquely phony scare tactics, omission of dose, and the distortion of the predictive value of animal models. It's worthy of, let's say, The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which is an astounding coincidence since the EDF is one of the groups pushing the FDA to ban the use of the solvent methylene chloride (dichloromethane or DCM) in the decaffeination of coffee (1,2). This is hardly the first time the EDF has been in the news saying stupid s### about chemicals. I've taken them to task for pushing a ridiculous policy for testing 10,000 chemicals in food and a super-scary report on lead. I've yet to discover a chemical that the group actually likes (although they are strangely silent about the 2,600 chemicals in cannabis, including 100 of which have been deemed toxic. Perhaps this is why... Methylene chloride – a personal memoir Having spent 30 years in a lab as an organic chemist, I'm guessing that I used methylene chloride thousands (probably more like tens of thousands) of times. It's a very commonly used, excellent solvent – this is why it's used to extract caffeine from coffee – that (ironically) has mostly replaced chloroform (a solvent with similar properties) because it's less carcinogenic. Chloroform, which is now rarely used, scares me. Methylene chloride does not. That said: With a boiling point of 103 o F, it evaporates very quickly. F, it evaporates very quickly. Even so, it's unpleasant to get on your skin. The stuff stings. You really don't want to get it into your eyes. Bad news. It's impossible to avoid breathing some of it, even under the most stringent lab conditions. It has…