Buttering up the popcorn market

It is taking the Occupational Safety and Health Administratiohn (OSHA) a long time to write rules to protect flavoring workers from a serious lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, linked to artificial butter flavor used in microwave popcorn. According to the public health blog, The Pump Handle (which has been instrumental in keeping the diacetyl story alive), OSHA has initiated a rulemaking. But meanwhile another factor is pre-empting OSHA's tardy start. The market:

ConAgra has removed a controversial chemical from its microwave popcorn that gives the snack a buttery, creamy taste, citing concern for its workers' health. ConAgra manufactures more than half of the nation's microwave popcorn.

[snip]

Though the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have specific regulations regarding diacetyl, it did issue a Safety and Health Information Bulletin in September with recommendations for safety and health standards for its use.

ConAgra began reformulating its popcorn over a year ago as a worker-safety issue. The company began removing diacetyl from its production lines in November and is in the final stages of taking it out of all products now.

"Our focus was on the worker-safety issue, the handling of the concentrated flavoring," says Al Bolles, vice president of research for the company. By January, none of the company's products will contain it, he says.

The nation's second-largest producer, General Mills, sells popcorn under the Pop Secret brand. It removed diacetyl from its products in October, spokesman Tom Forsythe says. The third-largest producer, American Pop Corn Co. of Sioux City, Iowa, sells under the Jolly Time brand. It also is reformulating its flavorings to remove diacetyl.

"We're just weeks away from converting our entire line, so it's all but done," says spokesman Tom Elsen. (USA Today)

Most people didn't pay too much attention when some workers suffered what has become known as popcorn lung, but they sure sat up and took notice when a consumer was reported to have suffered the same fate. Admittedly this guy was not a casual consumer of microwave popcorn. He apparently consumed two bags a night for several years, sometimes inhaling the fumes of the snack he liked so much. But it was enough to put a lot of people off.

And there are a lot of popcorn eaters to put off. If you believe the popcorn institute (and I'm not sure I do; factoids via the USA Today story linked above), Americans consume 55 quarts per person a year, 70% eaten at home (mostly microwave popped). If you pop it in a plain paper bag in the microwave, the bag can catch fire. But microwave popcorn in the bags made for microwaving, it not only releases diacetyl but also flourotelomers that can be converted into perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA; here). There is excellent coverage on this at The Pump Handle.

So even before OSHA got it's ass up off the couch it's been lounging on during the Bush years, the companies moved quickly to protect their workers. This says more about OSHA than it does the companies who know which side their kernels are buttered on.

Pathetic.