Coffee junkies rejoice, unless you drink your coffee very hot.
A World Health Organization panel found no conclusive evidence that drinking coffee causes cancer. However, you’d better watch out for other hot beverages such as tea.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the WHO’s cancer agency, found that drinking very hot beverages probably causes esophagus cancer in humans. The agency describes “very hot” as beverages consumed at temperatures above 149 degrees Fahrenheit. Many coffee shops including Starbucks serve their coffee as high as 180 degrees.
The agency deemed that drinking coffee was possibly carcinogenic to humans in 1991. But after looking at more than 1,000 studies in humans and animals, the agency found there was “inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking overall.”
Many studies showed no link between coffee drinking and cancers such as pancreas, breast and prostate. It also showed reduced risks for liver and uterus cancers.
“For more than 20 other cancers, the evidence was inconclusive,” the agency said.
The WHO agency found that the temperature, and not the drinks themselves, appears to be responsible for the link.
For instance, it looked at limited evidence that showed a link between esophagus cancer and drinking very hot beverages.
The studies looked at places such as China, Iran, Turkey and South America where tea is drunk very hot. The agency said that the cancer risk “increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk.”
“The majority of [esophagus] cancers occur in parts of Asia, South America and East Africa, where regularly drinking very hot beverages is common and where the reasons for the high incidence of this cancer are not as well understood,” said Christopher Wild, the agency director.
The agency issues recommendations to classify cancer hazards to help the public learn of cancer risk based on current knowledge.
