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Comment by anamexis | Hacker News Reader

Ehh, the whole premise there seems to be "chemicals bad," while acknowledging that the amount of solvent left in the coffee is negligible.

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I'm not sure about you, but I prefer the amount of solvent in my food and drink to be "none", rather than "negligible".

I have no preference, because a negligible amount of solvent is, by definition, indistinguishable from none.

I have some unpleasant news for you, literally everything you have ever eaten has some level of adulterants in it. It's allowed: https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredients-additives-gras-packagin...

I'm reasonably sure the moose I shot 200km from a paved road and the vegetables I grow in my backyard are pretty free and clear.

There’s pollutants in literally every square inch of soil of anywhere mankind lives or lives near. Even seals eaten by Inuit in the Arctic Circle are polluted.

To be fair the seals are probably far less polluted than some cheap random chicken bought at the supermarket.

The fact that perfection is impossible to reach shouldn't make us abandon and do nothing about it.

Seals are quite high up the food chain so are one of the most polluted foods regularly eaten by humans. It's much safer eating herbivores than carnivores.

Not saying anything about not trying to find perfection. I'm only saying it's unlikely that anything you consume is free of contamination in 2020.

You would be incorrect. Your backyard soil is not free from contaminants, nor is the foot that the moose ate.

Some additional bad news about water if you don't like solvents in your food.

I know what you mean, and this is bordering on willful misunderstanding, but I'll still do this:

The most commonly used solvent is water. Ethanol is also a major one: https://www.worldofmolecules.com/solvents/

The Greeks called water “the ultimate solution”, because it could dissolve just about anything, given enough time. It is the original solvent.

Or do we need to restart that program to ban all use of the horrible dihydrogen oxide solvent that pollutes over 70% of the surface of the world? ;)

One does achieve "none", tis marketing hype and wasteful. For instance, if you eat or drink any fermented foods, you are regularly consuming organic solvents. Undistilled alcoholic beverages contain quite a few interesting organic solvents that contribute to flavor (and hangovers).

I'd wager that is impossible. There will always be some contamination. The important thing is that it's small enough to not cause any harm.

Amount of caffeine in regular coffee: ~100mg per cup.

Caffeine LD50: 150-200 mg/kg (according to Wikipedia).

Maximum allowed amount of methylene chloride in beverages, the dreadful paint thinner, according to the link above: 10 ppm, or about 2 mg per cup.

Methylene chloride LD50: 1.25 g/kg (again, according to Wikipedia).

I.e., you will literally die of caffeine poisoning long before the paint thinner gets you.

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