McDonaldâs is being sued over a hot coffee spill, again.
This time, a San Francisco location is being accused of serving a âscaldingâ cup of coffee with an improperly attached lid, which allegedly resulted in the coffee pouring out on plaintiff Mable Childressâ body and causing âsevere burnsâ after she tried drinking it.
The lawsuit, filed last week, alleged that the elderly woman is suffering from âphysical pains, emotional distress and other damages.â The restaurantâs negligence was a âsubstantial factorâ for her injuries, it alleged.
Childress also said in the lawsuit that the restaurant employees ârefusedâ to help her, a point that the McDonaldâs denied.
I donât think I understand how it can be hotter than 100 celcius.
Iâm not defending McDonaldâs here, they can rot.
Like, coffee is mostly water, and water boils at atmospheric pressure at 100c. Milk boils slightly more than 100. I guess the lid would pressurise the steam a little? Maybe the coffee grinds hold the heat far more than the water? I wouldnât have thought it would be diluted too much to make a difference.
I guess this is a stupid question, because it happened. But how can boiling water cause third degree burns in the quantity of 500ml? I thought itâd have to be much more than that and very prolonged?
Half a liter of boiling water will absolutely do damage, especially if youâre restrained to a seat and canât get away from it. The water that comes out of your tap at home is probably only in the 140s, max, and thatâll do some damage.
Iâm also not certain anyone said the water was greater than 100c. I think the seminal case involved water that was 180-190 degrees F or something, and that itâs standard to be closer to 150 or so, which is essentially as hot as your tap gets at home.
OK cool.
It was me that said it canât go above boiling, 100. I was just under the impression that it would burn of course, but third degree burns was surprising to me. Burning away the epidermis and nerves of the skin entirely seemed to me to require a much higher temperature. I guess Iâm wrong, probably because of clothing holding the heat around the skin.
Thanks.
I know your question about the burns is already answered by others but its important to consider that the generally accepted optimal temp for extracting the flavour from coffee beans is approx. 90-95°C, and hotter gives the coffee a more âburntâ or less favourable flavour, so your coffee shouldnt be that hot. Further to this if you drink your coffee with milk, the milk is frothed at about 65°C which would bring the overall temp down a little more.
This is all in an ideal world where Maccas actually gives a fuck if their coffee is âgoodâ
Itâs prolonged because the spill happened on clothing, so the boiling water is held on to the skin instead of just running off.
That makes sense. Thanks.