jdnier wrote:As a follow up, here's a just-published investigative report on diacetyl exposure in mid-sized commercial roasteries (Just Coffee and Valentine Coffee in Wisconsin) from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The results are surprising and worrying for commercial roasters. It appears exposure to diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione from unflavored coffee grinding operations is as problematic as from roasting.

http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchd ... 83961.html

Actually that's the exact article TomC posted in the first post. The post date on the article is June 20.

Yes it is, sorry, I didn't realize the article had been out so long when I read it and posted.

There has been another follow up to the series, published on October 2, 2015. The series has gotten the attention of the CDC.
CDC warns coffee workers of hazardous chemicals
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchd ... 24931.html

This is the latest information from the CDC and NIOSH: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/flavori ... ssing.html

Protecting yourself is as easy as calling them, asking for guidance on air testing, and checking your results against theirs. If you're in the danger zone contact them again for PPE advice, ventilation recommendations, etc. I can not recommend this enough, especially for those of us in large roasting facilities. I know this sounds crazy but your lungs are worth more than the coffee you roast.

Time to put a fan directly behind me. I roast in my garage with both bay doors open and back door ( 36" ). I roast every other day for 20 minutes.
Not exactly heavy exposure but I have had Bronchitis for 40 years.

I will change my methods as of the next roast. As far as grinding, what are you going to do? I suppose I should use my small 8" fan for a breeze.

Thanks for the post

The big question I'm left with is what amount of coffee is the cutiff...of course there is no clear cut answer but an approximate nr probably can be estimated. For now I think dilution here too is the best solution for pollution, I too roast in the shed (much better than outside as the flame is not wandering) and grind inside. At my volumes I'm not very worried but could imagine running the extractor fan over the cooker for a bit if needed though roastjng itself probably has more impact so moving towards the door is likely better (the shed smelled quite nice when I was done after 4 roasts last weekend)

This is exhaust ventilation fan I use since moving indoors. I've got two of them mounted in plywood with 3" roaster vents.

Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window Fan, White by Holmes Holmes Dual Blade Twin Window Fan, White
by Holmes
Link: http://amzn.com/B00008XET9

I know that the purpose of the catalytic converter in the Behmor 1600 Plus is to reduce smoke, and that the catalytic converters in our cars reduce some dangerous emissions. Does anyone know if the catalytic converter built into the Behmor 1600 Plus reduces the amount of diacetyl emission from the roasting process?

Article in Seattle Times
RE: Hazardous Fumes
http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-worl ... rs-health/

wrakocy wrote:Any thoughts out there on the use of facepiece respirators (for example) equipped with vapor filters to combat this at home? Maybe overkill, but a cheap way to reduce risk, assuming the vapor filters work.

Séb wrote:This is the exact same mask that i use at the winery to protect from the potassium metabisulfite and i plan on buying the same for my roasting. It should work as well too. At the winery it perfectly fixed my respiratory problem i had while exposed to the K-meta.

I've gone back to this thread because I can get a dry cough and dry eyes and have had those checked so far with nothing serious happening. The cough preceded any coffee roasting by many years and runs in my family. The dry eyes appeared when I wasn't roasting. So I'm thinking that the smoke from roasting might be an irritant I would do better to reduce. I don't roast a lot, but this makes me want to take precautions, at least a fan blowing the smoke out the garage door. If I find that irritation occurs around when I'm roasting I might try a face mask like the one above where the model that's linked is no longer current. In researching that 3M mask I found the following as probably equivalent: 3M Large Half Facepiece Reusable Respirator 7503/37083(AAD), Respiratory Protection, Large with vapor filters.

However for the coffee processing industry NIOSH recommends a full face mask to also protect your eyes and skin and recommends not relying on lack of noticeable odor. The 3M mask that's recommended is the 6000 series. That, plus organic vapor filter 60921 and eyeglass frames that fit inside the mask (3M Safety 6878 Spectacle Kit for 6000 Series Full Facepiece Respirator plus lenses you have made) get expensive. Here's the 3M Technical Data Bulletin TDB #238 Lung Disease in Coffee Processing Industry. Of course the guidelines include air sampling that is impractical in a home environment.

if exposure is similar to that of most agents you'd probably be OK with less protection than those in the industry being exposed all day every day.