European Commission coffee machines proved poisonous
EU commissioners and their staff will have to stand in line at the coffee shop again, after 20 state-of-the-art espresso machines installed in January for their exclusive use proved to brew contaminated coffee.
Tests have confirmed that the levels of nickel and lead in 17 of the machines were above the allowable threshold, Dennis Abbott, a spokesman for the commission said.
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"We can't switch these machines on if we have these concerns," he added.
The commission's tests were run after one archivist working in the upper levels of the commission's headquarters found that the coffee tasted odd and sent a sample to a lab in his home country, Austria, International Herald Tribune reported.
Mr Alexander Just's findings proved that the levels of heavy metals in the coffee were a danger to the health of EU officials, at more than 17,000 percent above the legal threshold for nickel and over 16 percent for lead.
An internal note circulated to staff members last week warned that over-exposure to nickel could prompt skin problems or gastrointestinal disorders. Nickel would be "eliminated from 7 to 40 days after absorption depending on the quantity absorbed and length of exposure to the metal," the note said.
A "relatively low amount of lead" was detected and it was "unlikely that effects on the human organism would be detected by specific analyses," the note went on, giving the name and number of a doctor for any employees concerned about their health.
Cimbali, the Italian producer of the coffee machines, which cost between €5,000 and €6,000 each, said its products were "in compliance with all the international required standards."
The commission spokesman said it was "premature" to comment on whether the EU would need to ask for its money back – a sum amounting to about €100,000.
EU commissioner for industry Gunter Verheugen told Der Spiegel that he was "appalled" by the sum and could not get an answer from his colleagues as to who had taken the decision to buy the units.
A small, modest coffee machine that was previously in place was doing the job perfectly, Mr Verheugen argued.
A spokesman for the commission defended the decision to buy the machines, however.
"How many ministers do you know who queue in the main cafeteria, and is that a good use of their time? The commissioner is not sitting there all day drinking coffee, it is served to visitors. The machines are obviously more expensive than the sort of machines you or I have, but they are designed for greater use. I would suggest it is a sensible use of public money because we do not want to have commissioners wasting time in queues," he told The Times.