On May 8, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the ban on methylene chloride for consumer uses and most industrial uses. The decision was made under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the American law on toxic substances. The reason is not the cup: it is the cancers and the deaths by asphyxiation among exposed workers.

This rule does not, however, affect decaffeination, and the reason is administrative. Coffee falls under the Food and Drug Administration, not the EPA. Yet the FDA has allowed a residue of 10 ppm in decaffeinated roasted coffee and instant coffee extract since 1985.

Hence a petition, filed in December 2023. It comes from the Environmental Defense Fund, Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, the Center for Environmental Health, the Environmental Working Group and the toxicologist Lisa Lefferts. It asks the FDA to withdraw the food additive status from four solvents, including methylene chloride. The legal argument is the Delaney clause, which prohibits any additive that is carcinogenic in animals.

The National Coffee Association replies that banning it would “defy science and harm the health of Americans.” It cites the favorable associations of decaf and recalls the volume at stake: about one American adult in ten drinks decaf every day, most often solvent-treated.

The FDA reopened and then closed a comment period. In July 2026, no decision had been made. The debate pits two logics that are not measured in the same place: the residue in the cup, tiny after roasting, and the exposure in the plant, real.

CSPI, EPA banned methylene chloride, but it's still used in foods (2024); STAT News, 03/28/2024; Barista Magazine, Will the FDA ban methylene chloride in decaf coffee?, 07/27/2026; EDF, petition of 11/06/2023