Miulang
May 6th, 2007, 05:55 PM
I don't eat artificially flavored microwave popcorn (the main reason that the smell of it induces my gag reflex), but for those of you who do eat the artificial butter flavored (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/06/AR2007050601089.html?hpid=topnews)stuff, you might want to reconsider:
Since 2001, academic studies have shown links between the disease and a chemical used in artificial butter flavor called diacetyl. Flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million as a result of lawsuits by people sick with popcorn workers lung over the past five years. One death from the disease has been confirmed.
But no federal laws regulate the chemical's use. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still deciding what standards to set for workers who handle it. In late April, the head of OSHA, Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin G. Foulke Jr., testified before Congress that the agency will begin inspecting microwave-popcorn factories this month.
While critics charge that OSHA has stalled, California is moving ahead. Here, state Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D) has introduced a bill to ban the use of diacetyl.
Even though no studies have yet been released on the effects of artificially flavored microwaved popcorn fumes in the lungs of consumers, you gotta wonder if even occasional breathing in of those diacetyl fumes might someday adversely affect your lungs. Best bet is to read labels on microwaved popcorn and avoid those with "artificial butter flavoring". Or get unflavored microwave popcorn and put your own flavoring on it (butter and furikake? butter and chili powder? or butter and li hing powder--but only use the stuff with sugar not the stuff with aspartame?)
Miulang
Since 2001, academic studies have shown links between the disease and a chemical used in artificial butter flavor called diacetyl. Flavoring manufacturers have paid out more than $100 million as a result of lawsuits by people sick with popcorn workers lung over the past five years. One death from the disease has been confirmed.
But no federal laws regulate the chemical's use. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still deciding what standards to set for workers who handle it. In late April, the head of OSHA, Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin G. Foulke Jr., testified before Congress that the agency will begin inspecting microwave-popcorn factories this month.
While critics charge that OSHA has stalled, California is moving ahead. Here, state Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D) has introduced a bill to ban the use of diacetyl.
Even though no studies have yet been released on the effects of artificially flavored microwaved popcorn fumes in the lungs of consumers, you gotta wonder if even occasional breathing in of those diacetyl fumes might someday adversely affect your lungs. Best bet is to read labels on microwaved popcorn and avoid those with "artificial butter flavoring". Or get unflavored microwave popcorn and put your own flavoring on it (butter and furikake? butter and chili powder? or butter and li hing powder--but only use the stuff with sugar not the stuff with aspartame?)
Miulang