Wake Up and Smell the Nauseating Coffee

jacobjyu writes "The NY Times is running a story about a coffee roasting plant being accused of polluting the air. The city inspector claims the smells are making people sick, however the plant owner retorts, 'This is not a smell that makes people sick ... This is one of those sweet smells like cut flowers, like fresh-baked bread, that's part and parcel of life in every city across the world.' Whatever the case, some people are claiming plastic-smelling fumes coming from the stacks: my only question is what the heck are they putting in this coffee??"

Simple simple simple--overexposure

[Stone Rhino]

I read this article in its hard-copy form earlier today. The simple thing is that exposure to anything for long enough will make you sick of it. I'm sure many /. readers have a game they love, but if they played it 24 hours a day and had to play the same level over and over, I think they would be sick of it too. Here, the people are just smelling coffee for hours on end, and while that may a pleasant or at least tolerable smell to you or I, to someone who deals with it for hours on end, it is a very different situation. As the article says, they even get these against Krispy Kreme donuts--and who doesn't love those?

Re:Decaffeinated

[Stone Rhino]

RTFA--they're not. It's just roasting of coffee that's going on there. However, anything can be unpleasent if you have enough exposure (note my comment below, posted simultaneously with yours)

Bay Bridge

[linuxwrangler]

I remember a few years back when there was a big roasting facility (Hills Bros. ??) at the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge. The smell was quite strong (and not as pleasant as the smell of a brewing cup). Other than being annoying to some, I have no idea about the health effects of coffee-roasting byproducts.

A number of bakeries were required by the Bay Area air folks to add pollution controls. Everyone likes the smell of baking bread but baking drives off the alcohol created by the yeast and the quantity of alcohol being released into the air was really surprising.

Still, I'd rather go after bad-smelling pollution first - I'm willing to take the risk from bread baking and fireplaces as they bring me sufficient pleasure.

I Agree

[yancey]

There is a Folger's plant near my home town and I used to drive by there on my way to work at 6:30 in the morning. I have to say that the smell often reminded me of puke.

the smells of roasting/brewing are far different

[avi33]

Actually, the smell of roasting coffee is quite bitter. For example, if you put vodka in your penne and salmon, the particles that are vaporized is far different than the eventual flavor left in the sauce. The kitchen smells like a russian cabinet meeting, but the sauce is more balanced.

With coffee, it's far more extreme, since you're actually roasting away the impurities. It's not unlike plastic, but far more organic smelling, if that makes sense.

Personally it doesn't bother me, but I wouldn't want blowing through my house all day...