Tag Archives: Diacetyl

Republicans Hastings, McMorris Rodgers and Reichert Record Votes Opposing Popcorn Worker Safety

Last week members of the US House by a vote of 260 to 154 passed and sent to the US Senate HR 2693 – the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act. All three Republicans in the Washington State Congressional delegation (Reichert, McMorris Rodgers and Hastings) voted for an amendment to weaken the final bill. All of Washington State’s Democratic Congressmen voted to oppose the amendment as well as voting for final passage of the bill.

Hastings actively opposed the legislation in the Rules Committee ,voting against it coming to the House floor for a vote.

On the House floor Congressman Wilson of South Carolina offered a weakening amendment “to require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to wait until the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concludes there is sufficient data to support a recommended exposure limit and establishes such recommended exposure limit before issuing a final standard.

All three Republican Congressman form Washington State voted for this amendment. It failed on a vote of 189 YEA to 233 NAY. On final passage of the bill after the amendment lost, Reichert voted for the legislation. Hastings and McMorris Rodgers continued their opposition to the bill and voted against final passage.

Here is part of the discussion from the Congressional Record

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman and Members of the House, today we have an opportunity to protect thousands of American workers from a serious, irreversible and deadly lung disease known as “popcorn lung,” a disease caused by a simple artificial butter flavoring chemical called diacetyl.
The alarm bells began ringing on this health crisis over 7 years ago when a Missouri doctor diagnosed several workers from the same popcorn production plant with this debilitating lung disease. In 2002, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health linked the lung disease to exposure to diacetyl used in the plant.
Scientists have called the effect of diacetyl on workers’ lungs “astonishingly grotesque” and likened it to “inhaling acid.” Hundreds of workers in popcorn and flavor production have become ill, several have died of popcorn lung, and many of the workers are so sick they needed lung transplants. Dozens of workers have sued flavoring manufacturers, winning millions in lawsuits and settlements.
NIOSH first connected popcorn lung to this chemical in 2002. In 2003, NIOSH issued guidance recommending that workers’ exposure be minimized. In 2004, the Food Extract Manufacturers Association, the trade association of the flavoring industry, issued similar guidelines. Yet 5 years later, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has failed to issue a standard to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl, preferring to rely on voluntary efforts.
Voluntary efforts, however, have not worked. Last year, California researchers found that despite the issuance of government and industry guidance for years before, many of those recommendations still have not been implemented in the flavor manufacturing facilities, and new cases of this debilitating lung disease have been identified. How does this bill address the problem? H.R. 2693 would require OSHA to issue an interim final standard to minimize worker exposed to diacetyl. The [
GPO’s PDFstandard would contain provisions of engineering controls,
respiratory protection, exposure monitoring, medical surveillance and worker training. The interim standard applies to popcorn manufacturing and packaging, as well as the food flavoring industry.
OSHA would then be required to issue a final standard within 2 years. This final standard would apply to all locations where workers are exposed to diacetyl and would include permissible exposure limit.
This bill should not be controversial. It is not another battle between workers and business about safety issues and alleged burdens of regulations. Over the past several months, we have built a wide coalition around this legislation from all sides, including industry, labor and scientists. The Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association, the association representing the companies that make these flavorings, has joined with the unions that represent the affected workers to strongly support this legislation.
In fact, the only outside dissenters from this coalition are the usual anti-OSHA ideologues spouting the same old “sky is falling” rhetoric about regulations. Such
rhetoric may be music to the ears of the OSHA-hating ideologues in search of a talking point, but in the real world, this ideology leaves workers and their families to suffer from the preventable scourges of toxic chemicals. There are many reasons why industry, labor and scientists agree on this legislation. They all agree that we don’t need to wait any longer to act; indeed, we can’t afford to wait. I have a list of almost 30 major studies and reports showing that diacetyl destroys workers’ lungs. They agree that we know how to protect workers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health issued guidelines in 2003 laying out the basic measures that industry can take to prevent worker exposure to diacetyl. In 2004, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association outlined in even greater detail the measures that members can take to prevent the employees from getting sick. This legislation is straightforward and merely requires that OSHA do what it could have done and should have already done, issue an emergency standard. There is precedent for this bill and for Congress stepping in when OSHA falters in its mission to protect American workers. In 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 2000, Congress moved to require OSHA to issue health and safety standards.
Earlier this month, in response to a report that a consumer of microwave popcorn has contracted popcorn lung, a few popcorn manufacturers have announced that they intend to stop using diacetyl. This is welcome news. It highlights how serious this issue is, but it is not enough.
Workers are still at risk because diacetyl will continue to be used in a variety of other food products. We can’t wait for consumers to get sick and hit the companies in their pocketbooks before the industry changes. Workers are getting sick now, and have for many years, and will continue to get sick unless we act.
Workers cannot wait any longer for our help. In the past several years, we’ve seen hundreds of workers become sick from exposure to diacetyl, and we’ve heard about young workers who need lung transplants, who are not expected to live to see their small children grow up.
It is time for us to act. OSHA has failed over 5 years. They’ve been on notice to do this, they have failed to do this. The only time they have shown any movement is when we’ve called a hearing or had some congressional action, they have responded to it.
The time has come for Congress to act and pass this legislation and stop ignoring the needs of these workers’ health and safety. And it’s time to get OSHA to do the job that they were constituted to do, and that is, to protect these workers and their families from this preventable exposure to diacetyl as the toxic substance that it has become.

Congresswoman Woolsey, the bill’s prime sponsor, added her comments including this:

The Workforce Protections Subcommittee held a hearing on OSHA standards in April. We heard from Eric Peoples, a former microwave popcorn worker, who has popcorn lung. Eric is in his thirties. He has a young family. He worked in a microwave popcorn facility in Missouri for less than 2 years. After that, he had to stop work because he had contracted popcorn lung disease. Popcorn lung is an irreversible and life-threatening respiratory disease. Eric has lost 80 percent of his lung capacity, is awaiting a double lung transplant, and faces an early death, all because he was exposed to diacetyl.
A standard regulating exposure of diacetyl is currently needed. While OSHA has known about the dangers of the chemical for years, it has failed. It has failed day after day, year after year to act to make this standard an actual reality. In fact, OSHA has done virtually nothing to protect workers against diacetyl.
Now there has been at least one or two other reported cases of popcorn lung in consumers. Wayne Watson, a 53-year-old man from Colorado, has been diagnosed with popcorn lung due to his daily consumption of microwave popcorn over a 10-year period.
In addition, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that a 6-year-old child, the son of a popcorn plant employee who has popcorn lung, was showing signs of the disease himself. In that case, when the popcorn plant closed, the company told the employees they could help themselves to any of the company’s products. The father took home some butter-flavored oil containing diacetyl and used it for frying food. As a result, this 6-year-old child was exposed to the chemical, and it made him sick.
These are unintended and unfortunate consequences when OSHA refuses to act to protect workers. This is true, Mr. Chairman, even though the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers’ Association, the Industry that represents the food flavoring manufacturers, issued a report warning of the dangers to workers from exposure of diacetyl and recommended measures controlling that chemical.
OSHA does not seem moved to meaningful action, even though four of the Nation’s biggest popcorn makers have recently announced that they are working to remove diacetyl from their products. In my own State of California, CalOSHA is currently working on a standard to regulate diacetyl.

Congressman Wilson of South Carolina made his pitch which basically said let the Bush appointed regulators that haven’t acted since 2001 on this issue be trusted to come up with answers.

“…folks listening to this might be surprised that there actually is a process in place for rulemaking within OSHA. There is a process in place that maximizes workplace safety while it sets standards based upon the strongest and the most complete scientific information.
Now, today, the House of Representatives is considering a bill which bypasses this process, bypasses the process and sets a permissible exposure limit for diacetyl, making Members of Congress the ones who are the experts on scientific evidence.
As my friend mentioned, before I came to Congress, I was a physician. One of the things that concerned me greatly was that Members of Congress, many Members of Congress think that they know best about so many issues. One of them was how to practice medicine. In this instance, it’s what the level of appropriate exposure for a worker in this Nation ought be for diacetyl.
Diacetyl is an artificial flavoring commonly used for popcorn. It has been determined to be safe for general consumption, but the inhalation, the breathing in of large quantities may be harmful, although there is not any evidence that demonstrates that it can be solely harmful to an individual, which is what this bill actually assumes or presumes.
You have heard talk about the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH. NIOSH is the group that studies these kinds of things. In fact, they produced a study that concluded, “There is insufficient data that exists on which to base workplace exposure standards or recommended exposure limits for butter flavorings.”
Those are the folks that are the scientists that are involved in setting standards. We ought to listen to their recommendation. I commend the author and I commend the individuals who want to push the process forward more rapidly. I think that’s an appropriate thing to do. But by adopting this bill, Congress is effectively saying to OSHA that your rulemaking process doesn’t make any difference, that we don’t need to hear the folks who have the greatest amount of knowledge about an issue, and that Congress is about to set standards based upon incomplete scientific evidence.
Now that may not be of great concern to some, but it ought to be. It ought to be. Regulations of this nature should only be based on the most sound and thorough scientific data. Otherwise, Congress is coming back every 6 months, every year, every 2 years and revising what they have put in place because they haven’t based their decisionmaking on appropriate scientific information.
If this legislation is to go forward, then I would encourage my colleagues to allow
it to do so with the adoption of the Wilson amendment. This amendment would ensure that a final safety standard for diacetyl is in fact based on adequate scientific and complete review by NIOSH. The Wilson amendment will guarantee that the most effective worker protections are put in place with the backing of science rather than identifying one compound without complete information. If the goal here is workplace safety, if the goal is workplace safety, then we ought to make certain that that safety, those guidelines, those regulations are put in place and done correctly. Members of Congress should have a critical eye on the OSHA rulemaking process, without a doubt. But it’s important that we not implement mandates based upon incomplete scientific evidence and without all of the acts …

George Miller summed up the question before Congress in fairly simple form before the House voted:

“… I urge Members of the House to vote against the Wilson amendment and then to support the legislation. If we adopt the Wilson amendment, we’re going right back to the status quo, and the status quo is killing these workers in these facilities. And we have the ability to stop it with this legislation.
We should stop it now. We should not any longer empower OSHA to continue to drag their feet and ignore the health and the safety of these workers and their families.”

Does it make a difference whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress? Well on final passage of the bill 213 Democrats voted for the bill and 8 against it. Voting No were 146 Republicans , with 47 voting for final passage. The final vote 260 YEA to 154 NAY.

The weakening amendment vote was much closer however. 189 Yea to 233 NAY

Is EPA Deep Sixing Their Toxic Microwave Popcorn Study?

A week ago I got a phone call from the EPA in Washington, DC. It was someone from their Office of Public Affairs responding to my Sept 5, 2007 e-mail to the Environmental Protection Agency, asking them about their study on the release of diacetyl from microwave popcorn. The study was completed last year and shown to the popcorn companies but never released to the public.

I was told by Doretta Reayes in the Office of Public Affairs on that Monday that I would receive a call from Melissa in their Research and Development Division that afternoon about the study. I never received a call from her. Instead I received another call from Doretta saying that she “did more research” and that the study had “not been published” and there was no one to talk to and that “no one can answer questions”.

When I asked when it was going to be published she didn’t know. She said there was “no date for release.” When I asked why it was not released yet she didn’t know. She suggested I contact the FDA if I was concerned about it as a food issue – the classic pass it on to someone else. When I asked if the EPA study results had been passed on to any other Federal Agency like the FDA or anyone else, she didn’t know.

Unfortunately other Federal Agencies are not responding to diacetyl very fast. The FDA has said they will look at it now based on the recently reported case of bronchiolitis obliterans reported in August. But did the EPA provide the FDA with the results of their study on the release of diacetyl from microwave popcorn? I couldn’t get an answer from the EPA. If the EPA didn’t, why didn’t they?

Other Federal Agencies are also not responding. They seem to be avoiding the issue just like the Occupational Health and Safety people have been avoiding setting workplace regulations for workers in popcorn plants who are exposed to toxic diacetyl vapors. Popcorn workers problems have been investigated since 2001 but there are still no workplace guidelines or standards.

Doretta said she could see I was concerned and that she would get back to me on Friday. I still have not heard from her.

Since the initial press reports at the end of August on the dangers of diacetyl exposure from microwave popcorn most of the major popcorn companies have announced that they are removing diacetyl from their popcorn. They have seen the study, while the public did not.

Is the EPA delaying timely release of information that could affect people’s health to give the popcorn companies time to phase out diacetyl in microwave popcorn? If so the EPA could be subject to lawsuits from people just now being diagnosed with health effects caused by consumption of microwave popcorn. Just who benefits by delay in the release of this information – certainly not the public.

It seems to me that maybe someone in Congress needs to request a copy of the study and investigate whether the EPA is deliberately withholding the timely release of results to the public. They need to determine whether or not the EPA has withheld vital public health information to protect corporate popcorn interests. They need to ask what EPA did with the results once they had them and whether they forwarded them to other agencies, like the FDA and Occupational Heath and Safety Administration, concerned with health and food safety and worker safety.

Got Microwave Popcorn? Got Bronchiolitis Obliterans? Got Milk?

Workers at popcorn plants exposed to diacetyl have developed a rare lung disease known as bronchiolitis obliterans. This has been investigated since 2001 yet the Occupational Health and Safety Administration has not acted to protect workers health by coming up with workplace exposure regulations.

Now this week two cases have emerged of people developing “popcorn workers lung” as it is sometimes called. It can result in the need to have a lung transplant or death. One case was reported by a pulmonary specialist at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver of a 10 year twice a day microwave popcorn eater. The other potential case was of a son of a popcorn worker who received a huge amount of microwave popcorn from his job.

After years of inaction, including secretly seeing the results of an EPA microwave popcorn study last year, the popcorn industry is stampeding to the exits. Last week Weaver Popcorn Company of Indianapolis, Indiana announced that it was removing diacetyl, the suspected toxic ingredient, from microwave popcorn. Yesterday three more companies claim they will be jumping ship. ConAgra Foods Inc, General Mills, and American Popcorn Company said they would be removing diacetyl from their popcorn.

Last week I posted on this issue – “The Great Bush Toxic Popcorn Scandal” I noticed soon afterwards that my site , MajorityRulesBlog, had been visited by someone from ConAgra . If you Google on microwave popcorn and diacetyl you will see there is a lot of web activity on this issue.

Diacetyl is not just in popcorn but actually occurs in some food naturally, like milk and wine. The Dairy Industry is concerned of course but their website actually raised more questions.

The IDFA or International Daisry Foods Association notes that

“…diacetyl occurs naturally in some dairy products, and consumers may not realize that eating products with diacetyl poses no health risks. The health risk is associated with inhaling diacetyl that has been heated to temperatures over 100 degrees.

“Because of the nature of our products, dairy foods that contain diacetyl do not present a consumer or worker safety concern,” said Clay Detlefsen, IDFA vice president. “At colder temperatures, diacetyl attaches to the water molecules in dairy foods and never volatilizes or reaches the air.”

When used as artificial butter flavoring, diacetyl may be hazardous when heated and inhaled over a long period — such as in the production of microwave popcorn and some other heated food products. Some workers in factories that make the artificial flavoring have been diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterns, also known as “popcorn workers lung,” which causes serious respiratory problems…

Diacetyl also occurs naturally in wine, particularly chardonnay, and is used as an additive in many baked goods, candies and snack foods as well as in some dairy products.”

Several additional questions arise. What other foods, besides popcorn, contain diacetyl and in what amounts? And what is the workplace exposure levels to diacetyl of workers that are preparing foods heated over 100 degrees – like baked goods? And what consumer danger is there from heating foods that contain diacetyl over 100 degrees like in a microwave or oven?

A just released study entitled “Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome in Chemical Workers Producing Diacetyl for Food Flavorings” was published in the Sept 1, 2007 online edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The study concludes: “Exposure to an agent during diacetyl production appears to be responsible for causing bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome in chemical process operators, consistent with the suspected role of diacetyl in downstream food production.”

Enough scientific evidence is accumulating that there is reason to be concerned about diacetyl in all food products, not just popcorn, that are microwaved or heated to high enough temperatures to vaporize diacetyl. And worker safety levels need to be put in place in chemical plants producing the buttery flavoring diacetyl and well as plants adding the chemical as flavoring for food.

Since the Bush Administration seems not interested in tacking worker and consumer health and safety issues regarding diacetyl, action needs to take place in Congress to investigate and take action. Some states like California are already looking at acting sooner rather than later.

Contact your Representatives in Congress and urge them to take action.

Questions for the EPA

I sent the following e-mail to the Seattle District Office of the EPA today. I’ll let you know what they write back.

To the EPA:

I understand according to recent articles in the Seattle PI that the EPA completed a study last year on the release of diacetyl from microwave popcorn. Results were supposedly made available to the popcorn industry, yet not to the public.

Diacetyl is known to cause serious health problems to workers exposed to it. I would like to know what amounts I am being exposed to by microwaving popcorn.

Where and when or how can I receive a copy of this study or see a copy of this study?
When is this study going to be released?
Why has this study not been released yet?
What concerns does this study raise regarding the safety of microwave popcorn?
Have you alerted any other Federal Agencies, Congress or the President regarding the results of this study?

Steve Zemke
MajorityRulesBlog

I did a quick keyword search of the EPA library system and it returned nothing for the words diacetyl and microwave popcorn. Try it yourself at EPA national online library system. For comparison, typing in pcb produced 786 documents and lead 3895.

The Great Bush Toxic Popcorn Scandal – Part II

Follow Bill Clinton’s example – don’t inhale. Microwave popcorn releases toxic diacetyl vapors. This is the buttery aroma you smell when you open the bag. Don’t inhale, because the Bush Administration is continuing to cover up the scandal and is not acting to protect your health.

The New York Times today reports that a “Doctor Links a Man’s Illness to Microwave Popcorn.”

“Heated diacetyl becomes a vapor and, when inhaled over a long period of time, seems to lead the small airways in the lungs to become swollen and scarred. Sufferers can breathe in deeply, but they have difficulty exhaling. The severe form of the disease is called bronchiolitis obliterans or “popcorn workers’ lung,” which can be fatal.”

We wrote last week about “The Great Bush Toxic Popcorn Scandal.” This is new evidence damning the inaction of the Bush Administration in addressing a serious documented workplace hazard as well as a consumer health hazard.

Bush officials in the Environmental Protection Agency have measured the release of diacetyl from microwave popcorn but have not released the study to the public. The study was completed last year. The results were meanwhile given to the popcorn industry.

With this latest evidence and inaction we are obviously now in the throes of the “Great Bush Toxic Popcorn Cover-up“. The Bush team is obviously more intent on protecting corporate profits than alerting the public to the serious health risk of consumers being exposed to toxic diacetyl vapors.

This is the problem you get when you saturate the Federal bureaucracy, that is supposed to represent the public interest, with corporate and partisan politicians beholden to corporate interests as Bush has done. The Republican “Corporations First” policies of Bush is a disastrous one for our nation. Individual and worker concerns about health and safety are made subordinate to corporate profits.

As the Seattle PI wrote about last week and today, the Bush Administration is not acting on regulating and cleaning up the toxic workplace conditions that exist in industries like the popcorn industry. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health first investigated workers injured and dying in Midwest popcorn plants starting in 2001.

Despite serious life threatening workplace exposure to diacetyl, the Bush Administration, carrying out the conservative Republican Agenda to not regulate corporations, has not taken prudent action to protect worker safety and health. And now it appears that they are also ignoring the consumer health risk.

Consider these two statements quoted in today’s Seattle PI article.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., chairwoman of a work force protection subcommittee:

“The reported case of a consumer diagnosed with popcorn lung underscores the need for our public health agencies to take this hazard more seriously, not only for workers, but for consumers as well. While OSHA is dragging its feet over the numerous reports of workers who have died or suffered serious lung disease from exposure to diacetyl, this new case raises concerns that consumers may be at risk as well.”

As well as this comment:

Dr. David Egilman, an occupation medicine specialist, has examined and testified for many of the workers injured by diacetyl.
“People need to realize that these illness and deaths were completely preventable,” Egilman said. “They occurred because the companies who make these products hid the information on toxicity and control the regulatory process. … An emasculated government public health community that is subservient to corporate profits cannot protect us — even from popcorn”

I urge people to contact their Congressional representatives and urge action be taken to remove diacetyl form microwave popcorn, to put workplace protection in place for workers exposed to diacetyl and to ask that other foods with diacetyl in them that are heated or microwaved be investigated for possible health dangers.

The Seattle PI mentions that diacetyl is also in “potato chips, baked goods and candies, frozen food, artificial butter, cooking oils, beer, dog food and other items”

Tell Congress to take action to protect workers and consumers from the dangers of diacetyl in heated or microwaved foods. Click here to send a message to Congress.

The Great Bush Toxic Popcorn Scandal

Bet you thought the Environmental Protection Agency and other Federal Agencies worked for the public good? Wrong again. The EPA under Bush is just another Federal Agency working to protect corporate interests. This time its corporate popcorn profits.

After you read the story in the Seattle PI today you probably won’t want to eat any more microwavable popcorn. Remember the rush of hot moisture and vapor when you open the bag and how it smells “buttery”?

As headlined in the Seattle PI today, the chemical ingredient diacetyl, which is added to popcorn to give it a buttery taste, has been linked to “the sometime fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food production and flavoring factories.”

As the PI correspondent Andrew Schneider writes diacetyl is in thousands of consumer products including microwaved popcorn:

Despite the worker safety findings — and despite scores of jury decisions and settlements awarding millions of dollars to workers who sued after having their lungs destroyed by exposure to diacetyl — neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the Consumer Product Safety Commission have investigated. The FDA years ago declared the chemical safe for consumption. Labels on almost all products containing it call it a flavoring and only rarely do the labels mention diacetyl.
The only government investigators to examine whether consumers are at risk — whether diacetyl is released when consumers pop corn in their home microwaves, and if so, how much — is the Environmental Protection Agency. But to the frustration of many public health workers, the findings of the EPA’s study — which began in 2003 and was completed last year — have been released only to the popcorn industry
.”

The Pi notes that ConAgra, the largest supplier of microwave popcorn in the world told the EPA in 2004 that it had found that diacetyl was released when microwave popcorn bags are opened. It told EPA that “it is imperative that the health and safety of this product be assured to the extent possible within the very near future”

Bush’s EPA seems to have complied with this corporate wish. If the public doesn’t know, then it must be safe. Even though the study was completed last year the public has not been told of the results.

And even if they are, these days with non scientists in the Bush Administration rewriting and controlling the release of scientific studies it will be hard to discern what the actual study results found. And as the PI notes, this particular study was even done with industry involvement. Unfortunately it is also a limited study, not looking at health effects , only amounts of chemicals released.

And these releases to workers have been fatal. As the PI reports further diacetyl in food manufacturing plants “been linked to bronchiolitis obliterans — irreversible obstructive lung diseases — for which lung transplants are often the only way to survive.”

Despite this seriousness, both the Bush Administration Food and Drug Administration and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have declined to act. Corporate profits at any cost including human life reign supreme in the Bush Republican run Federal bureaucracy.

see additional articles:

artificial butter flavorings produced in popcorn factories linked with lung cancer

St Louis Post Dispatch – Popcorn Study showed Chemical was Toxic

Washington Post – Flavoring Suspected in Illness – Calif. Considers Banning Chemical in Microwave Popcorn

IndyStar.com – Microwave Popcorn Maker Takes Initiative

NY Times – OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry