Carbon Monoxide From Domestic Coffee Roasting: A Case Report

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of exposures and respiratory health at a coffee roasting and packaging facility and attached retail cafe.

“…Diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione, 2,3-hexanedione, other VOCs, and other chemicals such as CO and CO 2 are naturally produced when coffee beans are roasted, and grinding the roasted coffee beans produces greater surface area for off-gassing of these chemicals [Anderson et al 2003;Akiyama et al 2003;Daglia et al 2007;Newton 2002;Nishimura et al 2003;Raffel and Thompson 2013]. While TWA personal and area concentrations of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione were low (max 5.9 ppb), peak exposures to alpha-diketones occurred during specific tasks involving the manual handling of roasted coffee beans (e.g., scooping roasted beans from storage bin for weigh/pack and grinding coffee beans).…”

“…These gases are released during and after roasting and grinding, a process called off-gassing [Anderson et al 2003]. High exposures to CO and CO 2 can cause headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, confusion, rapid breathing, impaired consciousness, coma, and death [Newton 2002;Nishimura et al 2003;Langford 2005;CDC 2013a;Raffel and Thompson 2013;Rose et al 2017]. Occupational exposure limits for CO and CO 2 are listed in Table 1.…”

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of exposures and respiratory health at a coffee roasting and packaging facility.

“…Diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione, 2,3-hexanedione, other VOCs, and other compounds such as CO 2 and CO are naturally produced when coffee beans are roasted, and grinding the roasted coffee beans produces greater surface area for the off-gassing of these chemicals [Anderson et al 2003;Akiyama et al 2003;Daglia et al 2007;Newton 2002;Nishimura et al 2003;Raffel and Thompson 2013]. Occupational exposure to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione can cause loss of lung function and the lung disease obliterative bronchiolitis [NIOSH 2016].…”

“…CO and CO 2 are also produced by reactions that take place during coffee roasting and are released during and after roasting and grinding, a process called off-gassing [Anderson et al 2003]. High exposures to CO and CO 2 can cause headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, confusion, rapid breathing, impaired consciousness, coma, and death [Newton 2002;Nishimura et al 2003;Langford 2005;CDC 2013;Raffel and Thompson 2013;Rose et al 2017]. Occupational exposure limits for CO and CO 2 are listed in Table 1.…”

Health hazard evaluation report: evaluation of exposures and respiratory health at a coffee processing facility.

“…Diacetyl, 2,3-pentanedione, other VOCs, and gases such as carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are naturally produced and released during the coffee roasting process [Duling et al 2016;Raffel and Thompson 2013;Daglia et al 2007;Nishimura et al 2003;Newton 2002]. Grinding roasted coffee beans produces a greater surface area for off-gassing (sometimes called degassing) of these compounds [Akiyama et al 2003].…”