Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)

By David Michaels Earlier this week, we broke the story of the first case of âpopcorn lungâ occurring in person whose exposure to diacetyl was not workplace-related. Now more details are coming out, including an interview with Wayne Watson, the Colorado furniture salesman with disease. In today's AP article, P. Solomon Banda writes that "When Dr. Rose told me, she said: `Mr. Watson, there is a chemical in butter flavored microwave popcorn called diacetyl and it has been known to cause lung disease of this nature, with your symptoms.' I went, `friggin unbelievable.'" In many ways, Mr. Watson…
Workers who manufacture microwave popcorn for ConAgra and Pop Weaver will soon be able to breathe easier, since both companies have announced that they will stop using diacetyl to flavor their popcorn. Other workers â including those who make flavorings, baked goods, and other companiesâ microwave popcorn â may still be exposed to the artificial butter flavoring chemical. Other occupational health and safety news this week includes:   Salt Lake Tribune: At a Senate Subcommittee hearing, Mine Safety and Health Administration Director Richard Stickler testified that MSHA did not know about a…
Last week, Pop Weaver announced that it was eliminating diacetyl from its microwave popcorn products. Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Associated Press report that ConAgra will remove diacetyl from its Orville Redenbacher and Act II microwave popcorn over the next year. This news comes as David Michaelsâs post here about federal agenciesâ inadequate response to a case of bronchiolitis obliterans in a popcorn consumer has attracted widespread media attention (e.g., from the Associated Press, Denver Post, and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Itâs great to see that popcorn companies are…
By David MichaelsUpdated Below For the past several years, news articles and Congressional hearings have reported on a deadly, irreversible lung disease â bronchiolitis obliterans â that is caused by workersâ exposure to food flavoring chemicals, and more specifically by exposure to a butter-flavoring chemical called diacetyl. So far, attention has focused on worker exposure, rather than on possible health problems affecting consumers who pop popcorn in their microwave ovens. That focus may be changing, however, with a warning sent by one of the countryâs leading lung disease experts. The CDC…
By David Michaels The media has been buzzing (see here and here and here) about the announcement by the Pop Weaver Company that they will soon be marketing a butter flavored microwave popcorn that doesnât use diacetyl in the butter flavor. As readers of this blog know, diacetyl (a component of artificial butter flavor) has been implicated in dozens of cases of terrible lung disease in workers who manufacture, mix and apply flavorings. (Weâd like to know if the chemicals that have replaced diacetyl are safe â but that will be the subject of a later post). We still donât know if exposure to…
By Liz Borkowski  Although work has begun on a fifth borehole into the Crandall Canyon mine, officials acknowledged yesterday that the six miners may not be found. This LA Times article describes the anguishing choice between leaving the miners underground â a notion âakin to soldiers leaving comrades on the battlefieldâ â and risking more fatalities in a rescue operation thatâs already claimed three lives. In todayâs Washington Post, Karl Vick and Sonya Geis report that the focus has now shifted to determining the cause of collapse, and the retreat mining techniques being used are the first…
Jeff Lehr at the Joplin Globe reports that a new round of lawsuits has been filed against makers of an artificial butter flavoring used at a microwave popcorn plant in Jasper County, Missouri. Exposure to artificial butter flavoring â in particular, the chemical diacetyl â has been linked to severe obstructive lung disease, and the 44 plaintiffs in the two latest lawsuits allege that exposure to butter flavoring caused severe impairment of their lungs. Lehr explains: The lawsuits represent a second round of legal action against International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., and Bush Boake Allen,…
Back in April we reported that OSHA, facing scrutiny over its failure to protect food and flavoring workers from exposure to the butter flavoring chemical diacetyl, had announced a National Emphasis Program for the microwave popcorn industry. Last week, OSHA published a directive (PDF) to launch this one-year program. OSHAâs effort will involve âinspection targeting, direction on methods of controlling chemical hazards, and extensive compliance assistance.â The most glaring hole in the program, as we noted earlier, is that it only covers microwave popcorn manufacturing. In 2000, OSHA was…
With a bipartisan voice vote yesterday, the House Education and Labor Committee approved a bill that would force OSHA to regulate workers' exposure to diacetyl. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, chair of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections  and chief sponsor of the legislation, commented: Whatâs troubling is that if OSHA had taken action in a timely manner, we would not need to pass a bill to require OSHA to do something that it should have done a long time ago. ...While OSHA has ignored the warnings of NIOSH and others concerning this devastating disease, workers have become sick and…
As David Michaels reported earlier today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue standards for occupational exposure to diacetyl (an interim standard within 90 days and a final standard within two years). This artificial butter-flavoring substance has been linked to severe lung disease in workers exposed to it in airborne form. Workers from flavoring, microwave popcorn, and other food manufacturers have become ill, many after only a year or two of exposure. As with other pressing issues, Californiaâs legislature has decided not to wait for the…
By David Michaels The simple, powerful statement on the website of FEMA, The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, summarizing the trade association's position: The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States supports H.R.2693, legislation to assure workplace safety in flavor manufacturing. Thank you FEMA. Read their press release here. David Michaels heads the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) and is Professor and Associate Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, the George Washington…
By David Michaels Regular readers of this blog are probably aware of the many workplace hazards that OSHA has failed to address, including silica, beryllium, and, of course, diacetyl â the artificial butter-flavoring chemical thatâs associated with severe lung disease in workers at flavoring, food, and microwave popcorn plants. (Click here for our past posts on the subject.) Today, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has introduced legislation that would force OSHA to issue a standard protecting workers exposed to diacetyl. We fully support the bill, but the fact that it is needed at all highlights…
By Liz Borkowski While weâre waiting to hear what EPA and ConAgra have learned from studying emissions from microwave popcorn, itâs worth remembering that airborne artificial butter flavoring isnât the only concern associated with this particular convenience food. Rebecca Renner reported last year in Environmental Science & Technology about a study by FDA scientists on consumer products that contact food. They were investigating potential sources of the 4-5 ppb of PFOA, a suspected carcinogen, that most Americans carry in their blood, and one of the things they looked at was…
By David Michaels "The cooperation of ConAgra Foods and the EPA has yielded a comprehensive understanding of butter flavor emissions for consumers." - Patricia Verduin, Senior Vice President Product Quality & Development, ConAgra Foods, Inc. in a November 29, 2004 letter to Paul Gilman, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA As regular readers of this blog know, my colleagues and I at the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) have been pushing for regulation of occupational exposure to artificial butter flavoring, which has been…
By David Michaels We've been writing for the past few months about U.S. regulatory agencies' failure to take meaningful action on diacetyl, a toxic component of artificial butter flavor, despite having been aware of its risks since at least the start of this decade. Now, mounting evidence suggests that some flavor manufacturers have known about diacetyl's association with severe lung disease and failed to take appropriate action for even longer - since the early 1990s, when diacetyl started killing workers in flavor plants. Disabled workers are currently suing flavor manufacturers over their…
By David Michaels The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created more than thirty years ago to make the American workplace more safe. And officials there say that deaths and injuries on the job have declined on their watch. But critics say OSHA has dropped the ball when it comes to safety regulations for everything from oil refineries to popcorn plants. Thatâs the description of the segment of todayâs edition of the always interesting Kojo Nnamdi Show, starting at 1:00 PM EST. Iâll be one of Kojo's guests, along with Jim Morris, the author of the terrific National…
By David Michaels The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has just released a study examining lung disease and exposure to flavor chemicals among workers at the Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Company factory in Commerce, California. One or possibly two cases of bronchiolitis obliterans had been known to public health authorities before the investigation. Of the thirty-four workers studied, three were found to have severe obstructive lung disease; NIOSH reports the expected prevalence of this condition in a group of relatively young workers is about one in a…
By David Michaels Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee that funds the FDA has called on Food and Drug Administration to ban diacetyl until more research is completed. As we've written (here and here, for example), diacetyl is the artificial butter flavor chemical that has been crippling workers employed in flavoring, popcorn and snack food factories around the country. In announcing her letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, Congresswoman DeLauro said: In light of overwhelming scientific evidence, the possibility of…
By David Michaels In the last few days, the national media has finally focused on the failure of OSHA to protect workers from devastating lung disease caused by exposure to artificial butter flavor. (The problem goes well beyond microwave popcorn factories, to the flavor industry and other snack food plants.) Articles in the Washington Post, the New York Times and The National Journal all compare OSHAâs inaction with the activities the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (or CalOSHA), which is moving toward a rule forcing employers to protect workers in the food industry…
By David Michaels All of a sudden, America has become acutely aware of the terrible lung disease caused by workplace exposure to artificial butter flavor. Last week, the failure of OSHA to do anything in response to the outbreak of cases across the country was the subject of several powerful newspaper articles (including a front page story and editorial in the New York Times) and hearings in the House and Senate. In addition, the obstructive lung disease cases in the flavor industry were discussed in an alarming article in CDCâs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The article reported that…