Consumer Diagnosed with Bronchiolitis Obliterans
On our website, we have pages of information on diacetyl and bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as “popcorn worker’s lung” or “microwave popcorn disease.” Most of the people who develop bronchiolitis obliterans are workers in microwave popcorn plants who have been exposed to high levels of diacetyl, but now a consumer of microwave popcorn has been diagnosed with the disease.
According to a New York Times story:
The man told Dr. Rose that he had eaten microwave popcorn at least twice a day for more than 10 years.
“When he broke open the bags, after the steam came out, he would often inhale the fragrance because he liked it so much,” Dr. Rose said. “That’s heated diacetyl, which we know from the workers’ studies is the highest risk.”
Dr. Rose measured levels of diacetyl in the man’s home after he made popcorn and found levels of the chemical were similar to those in microwave popcorn plants.¹
Until now, the FDA has stood by its approval of diacetyl for use in the artificial butter flavoring used in most brands of butter-flavored microwave popcorn, even though hundreds of workers in microwave popcorn plants and artificial flavoring plants have become ill. Now that evidence is emerging that consumers are also at risk, the FDA may finally ban the use of diacetyl in flavorings. It should have been done years ago.
More from the New York Times story:
“We’ve all been working on the workplace safety side of this, but the potential for consumer exposure is very concerning,” said John B. Hallagan, general counsel for the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, a trade association of companies that make butter flavorings for popcorn producers. “Are there other cases out there? There could be.” [There probably are other cases, all of them misdiagnosed as asthma, chronic bronchitis, or hypersensitivity pneumonitis, as was the case initially with the man in this story.]
A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration said that the agency was considering the case as part of a review of the safety of diacetyl, which adds the buttery taste to many microwave popcorns, including Orville Redenbacher and Act II. . . . [So far it appears that the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it more important to have that “buttery taste” on microwave popcorn than to protect workers at the plants and consumers.]
“The government is not doing anything,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who leads a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the food and drug agency’s budget.¹
1. Gardiner Harris, “Doctor Links a Man’s Illness to a Microwave Popcorn Habit,” The New York Times, September 5, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/us/05popcorn.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print
