Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
sb admin | April 27, 2007By David Michaels
Following up on a powerful indictment of OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl and other hazards published two days ago in the New York Times, todayâs edition of the newspaper has a scathing editorial on the demise of OSHA under the Bush Administration. The editorial writers particularly go after OSHA Assistant Secretary Edwin Foulke, whom they refer to as âone of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues.â
The problem goes beyond the actions (or inactions) of one anti-regulatory zealot â OSHA has been beaten down and handcuffed for so long, even well-…
sb admin | April 26, 2007By David Michaels
On April 26, 2002, exactly five years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the risk of a terrible and sometime fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in microwave popcorn workers. The report appeared in the CDC's widely-disseminated Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Since then, dozens of workers at factories where artificial butter flavors are produced, mixed or applied have become sick, and at least three workers have died. Others are awaiting lung transplants.
By coincidence, today CDC has issued a new report in MMWR about…
sb admin | April 25, 2007By David Michaels
On the front page of todayâs New York Times, reporter Stephen Labaton highlights a trend that weâve been writing about here at The Pump Handle for some time: Occupational Safety and Health Administration has delayed or halted work on important standards for worker protection and put more of its energies into voluntary programs that let employers decide how far theyâre willing to go to protect workersâ health and lives.
Labatonâs article focuses on OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring that numerous scientific studies have linked to…
sb admin | April 24, 2007By David Michaels
As regular readers of this blog know, worker health advocates have been pushing for regulation of diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring chemical thatâs been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans, a terrible, sometimes fatal lung disease.
Today, in anticipation of two Congressional hearings and a major newspaper article due out tomorrow, OSHA has announced that it will take its first steps to protect diacetyl-exposed workers. Unfortunately, OSHA has announced it will ignore thousands of workplaces where workers are being exposed with no protection, and will focus only on…
sb admin | April 10, 2007By David Michaels
Labor health advocates in California are supporting legislation banning diacetyl, the flavoring chemical implicated in numerous cases of bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating lung disease, among workers in the food industry. The ban may never occur, but by demanding it we are getting closer to protecting workers and the public from this very toxic material.
The threat of a ban has forced the food industry into an unusual position - industry representatives are now praising the California OSHA program, which is also moving to issue regulations limiting exposure to the…
sb admin | March 30, 2007By David Michaels
Every month, more workers exposed to artificial butter flavor are being diagnosed with lung disease. Last July, two unions, with the help of the Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy Project, petitioned OSHA for an Emergency Temporary Standards to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl, a flavoring chemical that causes bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Nine months have passed, several workers have died, and, as far as I can tell, OSHA has done NOTHING. This continues to be a case study in regulatory failure.
Meanwhile, things are…
sb admin | March 15, 2007Diacetyl is a commonly used food additive made to give a buttery flavor to breads, cookies, candy and other goods. For decades, the chemical has been classified as "GRAS" (generally recognized as safe) by the US Food and Drug Administration. But for workers exposed to the chemical in food production factories, there is compelling scientific evidence that exposure to diacetyl is associated with a range of respiratory conditions, including the bronchiolitis obliterans.
The most publicized cases of this occupational illness have been among workers in microwave popcorn packing plants. (SKAPP…
sb admin | January 17, 2007By David Michaels
Later today, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board will hold a public meeting to consider issuing an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers exposed to the chemical diacetyl. This chemical, a primary component of artificial butter flavor, has been implicated as a cause of bronchiolitis obliterans, a debilitating and sometimes fatal lung disease.
Yesterday, on behalf of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), I sent the Standards Board new evidence: an unpublished Dutch study reporting three cases of the rare lung…
sb admin | January 15, 2007By David Michaels
The outbreak of severe lung disease caused by exposure to diacetyl, the chemical that makes food taste like artificial butter flavor, is growing. According to the California Department of Health Services, there are now eight known cases of severe obstructive lung disease among workers exposed to diacetyl, with three more reported cases under investigation.
How many cases are occurring in other states? No one knows, because California is the only state in the country that is actively collecting information. Whatâs striking about the California cases is that none of the…
sb admin | December 22, 2006By David Michaels
In July, two unions, backed by a group of scientists, petitioned both federal OSHA and California OSHA to issue rules to protect workers from diacetyl, the chemical implicated in dozens of cases of lung disease in the food industry (See our earlier post âArtificial Butter Flavor is (Still) Killing Workersâ).
Federal OSHA continues to do nothing. Earlier this month, a group of us met with several high level OSHA officials, who told us that the agency was still considering our petition. In other words, no action planned.
California, however, is moving forward.
The…