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Comment by nbschulze | Hacker News Reader

It would be great if anyone had more insight on this. I roast a pound of coffee about once every other week in my garage. I obviously grind it later, as I use it.

It would be nice to know if this is something that compounds over time or if it is just the high concentration of the chemical that is affecting the people being reported on.

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> It would be nice to know if this is something that compounds over time or if it is just the high concentration of the chemical that is affecting the people being reported on.

I think the science is not settled yet, which is why they are having a hard time making an exposure rule, but:

"NIOSH noted that five of six current employees who worked in the quality control room popping nearly 100 bags of product in microwave ovens per shift suffered airway obstruction despite relatively low full shift exposure to butter flavoring vapors."

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2009-01-21/pdf/E9-1125.pdf

From what I read about it seems like a cumulative hazard with no known safe level, every exposure does some damage. So I would install ventilation, or just buy a gas mask (they are not expensive, you can get them at a hardware store, probably cheaper than a ventilation system).

But there are different levels of respirators, some with filters for organic vapors, which I think you'd want if your goal is lowering diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione exposure.

One rated OV for Organic Vapor should be enough.

Evidence:

https://www.aiha.org/events/AIHce/AIHceAbstracts/Pages/Respi...

Section "SR-101-02 Determination of the Service Life of Air-Purifying Respirators against 2,3-Pentanedione"

Talk about germane, that's an excellent link. Thank you.

Obviously we are all speculating without an actual measurement, but it seems like at least ensuring adequate ventilation while doing this would be prudent. Most interesting to me was the fact that just the beans themselves (no flavorings) were still a concern.

Ditto. I usually roast outdoors, but I think after this I'll add some flexible ducting to my Behmor just to be safe.

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