Second, the unintended consequences could be enormous. We already have a crisis of confidence in our governments, institutions, and scientists. Maybe this is my second soy latte talking, but why risk incurring the wrath of the nation to prove a nanoscale point? Why cast the country into even more confusion by overreacting about a beverage consumed by Americans on the order of 2.1 cups per day per person?
We need to be restoring the public’s trust, building confidence, taking measured steps to real science-based threats, not causing hysteria over an extreme unlikelihood.
Think about our current political environment: Anti-vaxxers are putting the entire population at risk by refusing to allow their children to receive inoculations that keep them (and, by extension, others) from contracting life-threatening diseases. And consider: Only 27% of US adults agree with the statement “Almost all climate scientists agree that human behavior is mostly responsible for climate change.” (The number of scientists who agree that human behavior is the culprit is 97%, according to NASA.)
Under these conditions, slapping a warning label on coffee will effectively be a license to partake of any kind of food or beverage — or any type of activity — that the “experts” say we should avoid.
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