Say it ain’t so: Coffee more toxic than 2,4 D?

I love coffee, and I look forward to the one or two cups I enjoy each day with anticipation and pleasure. So what does coffee have to do with the common lawn weedkiller 2,4 D?

Well, recently, Jeff Gillman, a professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota and the author of The Truth about Garden Remedies, wrote about this topic on the blog The Garden Professors. This is a relatively new blog about the science of horticulture, and I highly recommend it. I’m certainly furthering my education when I read it.

But let’s get back to coffee — what blew Gillman away is how toxic caffeine is. As he says, “If caffeine were a pesticide, it would need to be labeled as category two.” (There are four classes with category one being the most toxic). Apparently 150 tall lattes, or 150 of the smaller cups of espresso from which lattes are made, contain enough caffeine to potentially kill a 150-pound person. Of course, no sane person would ever drink 150 cups of espresso in one sitting. (Who could afford 150 Starbucks lattes in one go anyway?)

When Gilman compares the toxicity of caffeine to that of 2,4 D — and he’s not a huge fan of the wide-spread overuse of this herbicide — he notes that caffeine is more than two times as toxic as 2,4 D.

Interesting: Ontario and Québec have banned the use of 2,4 D, but coffee lovers are still enjoying their lattes. You can read Jeff’s full article here, and don’t miss the post on the dubious benefits of compost tea by his colleague Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott. There is also an excellent post on the compost tea controversy by Susan Harris at Garden Rant.

Isn’t it fascinating how how everything is more complex than it appears on the surface? Do you suppose there will soon be a movement to outlaw coffee?

Image credit: OiMax, Flickr Creative Commons

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Tagged as: caffeine, lawn weedkiller, toxicity