Possibly a reason to remove copper from brewing/plumbing?

While the article is interesting and does a good job at suggesting the interplay of Cu containing enzymes and Tumor respiration, they conclude that they really don't think there is any reason to believe Cu causes cancer.

Of course too much anything is never good, but their conclusion simple suggests that lowering Cu concentrations in preexisting tumors minimized additional tumor growth.

So I'd say that it's probably unnecessary to remove from brewing set ups, unless if we're thinking of people who are unaware that they have tumors. As far as plumbing...I'm sure that there's probably a laundry list of practical reasons why Cu is the go to material for plumbing. (brazing, conductance,malleability etc)

 

That's why I switched my brewery to lead.

 

and an asbestos mash tun I'm sure

 

This was my read of the article. Interesting stuff, but the salient question remains: how much does (my) homebrew consumption increase my copper intake (I use a copper immersion chiller) and how does that compare to copper ingestion by mice in this study. Perhaps there should be an epidemiology study that compares the rate of tumor growth among homebrewers that use copper immersion chillers to those that use stainless?

 

Irish moss and ricin at 15 minutes.

 

Remember that copper is an essential micronutrient; maybe tumor cells are more sensitive to Cu intake but you can't remove all of it from your diet to prevent progression of cancer. If you stop breathing, that will kill the cancer cells too, among other things.

As far as plumbing goes, unless you have very soft or corrosive water, there will be a layer of scale lining your copper pipes after a few months of use, preventing any further dissolution of Cu. The number to be concerned with is the Cu content of your water coming out of the tap, not what the pipes are made of. Cast iron and plastic pipe are not without purported hazards either.

In brewing, yeast require some copper. When kettles went from copper to stainless, some breweries found it necessary to throw the occasional piece of copper wire in to keep fermentation healthy. As far as excesses, my hunch is that they are absorbed by yeast and/or sediment out on their own. As in drinking water, what we really care about is the Cu content of the finished beer. Someone should check a few homebrew samples for Cu content; I'd do it but my work XRF is dead and won't be replaced for a month or two.

This reminds me of the Great Aluminum Debate of 15 years ago. It was proven rather exhaustively that brewing in an Al kettle contributed no more Al to the finished brew than brewing in stainless. My long ago experience analyzing grain for animal/human feed suggests that any Al in your beer came from the malt (e.g. wheat and barley typically 1500-2000ppm Al).

 

just brewed an ASB "arsenic special bitter". Its fermenting in my galvinized carboy

edit: galvanized

 

I prefer my Arsenic Selenium Bitter.

 

I'm working on a rauchbier fermented on cig. buts. I cant figure out how to avoid the massive absorption due to the cotton though.

 

but back to OP cancer=bad

 

Put the Pb back in PBR

 

Probable Botulism Rye