Cricketscoffee Blog

A chemical long known to cause rapid, severe lung damage remains unregulated by federal labor officials, according to a recent report. The report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel concerns diacetyl, which is used in its liquid form to flavor an array of food products, including as candy, chips and popcorn. It has been cleared to eat in trace amounts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and occurs naturally during production of butter, beer and coffee. Inhaling diacetyl, however, causes severe damage to bronchioles in the lungs and results in additional scar tissue, an irreversible condition known as bronchiolitis obliterans. It has led to a handful of worker deaths and hundreds of injuries. The report said connections between diacetyl and lung disease dated to the mid-1980s, while officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had established the relationship between the two since the early 2000s.  A Journal Sentinel report chronicled workers at a Texas co...

     Last year Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano to the International Space Station. His main complaint was the lack of decent espresso. Seeing a new market, Italian espresso manufacturer Lavazza said it had partnered with Argotec, an Italian aerospace engineering company, to create a space worthy espresso machine for the International Space Station.     Called the “ISSpresso,” the new machine uses a capsule system to make espresso, caffè lungo, coffee, and other hot beverages. The company says the space coffee machine weighs 44 pounds and works under extreme conditions. It even works upside-down.     Lavazza says it expects the ISSpresso to be ready to go into orbit in November, when the Italian Space Agency sends its second long-term mission to the space station.  But with the recent drought and rust problem will the space station be able to afford the coffee? tags; space station, nasa, decaf, moca...