The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday said it will conduct experiments to test a recent claim by a well-known physician and public speaker that drip bag coffee could increase the risk of cancer because of a chemical in the filter.
“Many people may think drip bag coffee is convenient, but people are neglecting a risk,” Chiang Shou-shan (江守山) posted on Friday on Facebook. “The reason why the drip bag’s paper filter does not break when hot water is poured into it is mainly because a wet strengthening agent is added to the paper.”
“The wet strengthening agent is a carcinogen,” he said.
Although the strengthening agent has low solubility with hot water, chemical compounds in the coffee can cause the strengthening agent to be released into the coffee, Chiang wrote.
Many people might ask why there are hidden health risks in the use of a legal strengthening agents, but there have been several cases of risks hidden in things that are legal, such as trans fats, which have been in use for 100 years, but now face being banned from use in food products, Chiang wrote.
In response to media queries, FDA Division of Food Safety official Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智) said wet strengthening agents are high molecular weight polymers that allow the filter paper to maintain its viability when wet, and because it takes just a short time for hot water to pass through the filter, the risk of dissolution is low.
Although no countries have banned the use of such agents, the agency will arrange experiments to test Chiang’s claim, Cheng said.
Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital nephrologist Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海) said he thinks Chiang might be referring to 3-monochloro- 1,2-propanodiol — a carcinogen in animals — which can be released when filters with polyamide-epichlorohydrin (a strengthening agent) is exposed to water, but more evidence is needed to prove his claims, the Central News Agency said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching