Starbucks, the man behind the rumor that coffee causes cancer, was sued in court because of it.

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Last week (March 30, 2018) almost all Chinese and English media reported that coffee has carcinogenic doubts. But most people, including the media, probably don't know that this suspicion is not based on scientific evidence, but on political and legal manipulation.

The lawsuit was reported in the media two months ago, but people familiar with the situation said: "This lawsuit in California, let the big guys play." We're happy for the lawyers who make money anyway."

These two sentences seem relaxed, but in fact they are helpless self-mockery: no amount of scientific evidence can defeat the manipulation of law. (Coffee is far more anti-cancer than carcinogenic, please see the relevant article on this site)

The story stems from a mysterious "civic group" called the Council for Poison Education and Research, which in 2010 asked the California government to force coffee shops to label coffee as carcinogenic.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT). However, it does not really exist in the "folk", but only exists in the judicial proceedings of the document.

CERT's contact address is 401 E Ocean Blvd., Ste. 800, Long Beach, California 90802-4967, 1-877-TOX-TORT.

This address and phone number actually belong to a group of lawyers called Metzger Law Group (owned by Raphael Metzger).

CERT seems to be the legal entity it created for this type of litigation, the specialty of this group of lawyers (the way to make money), which is suing businesses (especially the food industry) in California courts.

California voted in 1986 to pass Proposition 65, which required (1) the state government to maintain and update a list of chemicals known to be carcinogenic or toxic to reproduction (i.e., a list of poisons), and (2) that any company whose products contain any of the chemicals on the list must label them as such (e.g.,"possibly carcinogenic").

There are nearly 1000 chemicals listed on this list, which of course gives Metzger Law Group unlimited business opportunities.

Once notified, any enterprise must demonstrate that its products do not contain a listed chemical (or that the chemical is not toxic or carcinogenic). Coffee producers, for example, must prove that trace amounts of acrylamide in coffee do not cause cancer.

To obtain such proof, companies must conduct clinical trials, which not only cost a lot (tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars), but also do not guarantee that they will obtain indisputable evidence. (Air can cause cancer, you know.) Fortunately, there is no industry selling air)

Therefore, the defendant enterprises were finally forced to settle out of court and agreed to make toxic or carcinogenic labels on their products.

So, what does Metzger Law Group get?

According to Bloomberg, Proposition 65 litigation resulted in 760 out-of-court settlements last year alone, with defendant companies paying $30 million in settlement fees, 72 percent of which were paid to lawyers.

According to Bloomberg, Metzger Law Group will make millions of dollars from this coffee case.

Now you know who is behind coffee cancer.