flavored coffee

Occupational Health News Roundup

kkrisberg — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 17:27:34 +0000

Occupational Health News Roundup

At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reporter Raquel Rutledge follows up her in-depth investigation into diacetyl exposure among coffee plant workers with news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into the hazardous exposures that some 600,000 people face as they work to roast, grind, package and serve coffee. Rutledge reports that in the wake of newspaper’s 2015 investigation, CDC is now conducting tests at facilities across the nation — in fact, the first test results from a coffee roasting facility in Wisconsin found very high levels of chemicals that have the potential to destroy a worker’s lungs. Rutledge writes:

Investigators with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a research arm of the CDC, spent several days at Madison-based Just Coffee in July. Investigators tested personal air space and took air samples to measure the concentration of the chemicals diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione. They also evaluated the company's ventilation and other operating systems.

Diacetyl has been tied to the deadly lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans, more commonly known as "popcorn lung" for its association with the many illnesses suffered by microwave popcorn workers in the early 2000s. The chemical's molecular cousin, 2,3-pentanedione, has shown equal toxicity in animal studies.

Both chemicals have been made synthetically to give a buttery flavor to all kinds of foods and beverages and have been deemed safe to ingest in trace amounts. Inhaling the compounds, however — whether natural or synthetic — can prove deadly.

The tests at Just Coffee were the agency's first study of a coffee facility that does not used added flavors. The results underscore the risk faced by all coffee workers, not just those in facilities where artificial flavors are used.

The two chemicals form when coffee beans are roasted and then are released into the air in greater concentrations when the beans are ground. Levels also build up as the beans "off gas" in the storage bins.

NIOSH Director John Howard told the Journal Sentinel the issue is a priority for the agency.

"There's a large number of workers and the harm is really severe," he said.

To read the full article, visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

In other news:

Huffington Post: Dave Jamieson reports that Uber has settled a couple of major class-action lawsuits brought by workers in California and Massachusetts who claimed the ride-hailing company was misclassifying them as independent contractors, rather than as traditional employees, to save money. Under the agreement, Uber will still consider those workers independent contractors, but it did agree to help create an Uber “drivers association” in the two states. But how much power or leverage the association will give drivers remains unclear. Jamieson write: “Ironically, if the association is granted meaningful powers, it could face legal challenges. Under U.S. labor law, it is illegal for a company to dominate or control a worker organization. …Even if Uber has good intentions with the drivers association, the mere fact that the company will help fund it could invite a charge on (legal) grounds, labor experts say.”

NBC News: Griselda Nevarez reports on the AFL-CIO’s annual “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect” report, which finds that Latino workers continue to face greater risks of dying on the job than fellow workers. However, overall, the work-related fatality rate among Latino workers did decline in recent years. In all, 804 Latino workers died on the job in 2014, 513 of who were immigrants and the majority of who were men. Nevarez quoted Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO’s director of health and safety: "The good news we saw this year was that the fatality numbers and the fatality rate for Latino workers went down in 2014 from 2013. The bad news was they're still at the highest risk of all workers. They still have the highest fatality rates of any group of workers and all workers as a whole."

BuzzFeed News: Chris Geidner reports that the Supreme Court has ruled 6-2 that the First Amendment bars an employer from demoting an employee if the employer believes the worker is engaged in protected political activity — even if the employer’s belief is incorrect. The case involved a former police detective who was demoted after he was seen picking up a campaign sign for the mayor’s opponent — the detective was not actually involved in the campaign, but was just simply picking up a yard sign as a helpful gesture. In this case, the question before the court, Geidner reports, was whether First Amendment protections applied to situations in which the employer “incorrectly believed” the employee was engaged in political activity. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented.

Los Angeles Times: David Neumark pens an op-ed on whether women face age-based discrimination in the job market — it’s an issue that he writes is “critical to Social Security or any other reforms to public pensions that rely on keeping older workers on the job.” To find an answer, Neumark and colleagues created fictitious resumes for young, middle-aged and older job applicants and applied for jobs that typically employ low-skilled workers of all ages. Then ended up sending out more than 40,000 fake applications to more than 13,000 positions. They found that older workers received far fewer callbacks than younger workers. However, women ended up facing more age discrimination than men. Neumark writes: “Why might older women suffer relatively more from age discrimination? In general, research indicates that physical attractiveness boosts hiring. Moreover, related research suggests that there is an ‘attractiveness penalty’ for age, which is more severe for women than for men.”

Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for nearly 15 years.

kkrisberg Wed, 04/27/2016 - 13:27

Flavored java, coffee bean workers, and deadly lung disease

cmonforton — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:03:16 +0000

Flavored java, coffee bean workers, and deadly lung disease

I take mine black, but millions of U.S. coffee drinkers love their java beans flavored to taste like hazelnut, buttered toffee, french toast and amaretto. One supplier in Florida boasts of 47 different flavors. Fans of flavored coffee beans pay a premium for them, but some workers in the bean processing plants are paying a steeper price: their health.

This week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describes cases of obliterative bronchiolitis diagnosed in two individuals who worked at a Texas coffee-processing company. Bronchiolitis obliterans is a rare and serious obstructive lung disease with no cure, except for a lung transplant. One of the individuals, a 34 year old woman (non-smoker), worked at several jobs in the plant, including the "flavoring room." The report explains:

"There, whole roasted coffee beans were mixed with liquid flavorings in an open process, ground, and packaged. Her primary tasks included operating the grinding and packing machines for these flavored coffee beans."

The other individual, a 39 year old man (non-smoker) also worked in the flavoring room.

"His job involved open bench-top weighing of liquid flavorings, which he poured into barrels of roasted coffee beans. A machine rotated these open barrels while he stood nearby to monitor the process."

This is not the first time we've heard of workers exposed to flavoring agents and then developing this irreversible lung disease. Not quite 10 years ago, another MMWR described cases of bronchiolitis obliterans in workers who'd been employed at microwave popcorn manufacturing plant in Missouri. They too were exposed to the flavoring chemicals, including a ketone called diacetyl.

The workers' illnesses didn't attract much attention until Denver resident Wayne Watson developed the same disease. He never worked at a microwave popcorn factory, but developed it by inhaling several times a day the hot butter-smelling vapors from his favorite snack. Popcorn manufacturers quickly removed the butter-flavoring agent diacetyl from their microwave products, but some of the substitutes may pose similar risk of respiratory damage (see studies: here, here) A 2013 study found workers at the microwave popcorn plants had a higher rates of respiratory disease mortality than the general population.

Now come this report of the same disabling respiratory disease in other workers exposed to flavoring agents. The coffee-bean production workers first developed a cough and shortness of breath on exertion. Treatment with steroids did not resolve their symptoms and eventually, both were referred to a pulmonologist. Additional testing and lung biopsies resulted in the diagnosis of obliterative bronchiolitis related to their work. The authors of the MMWR piece write:

"Especially of note is the short employment tenure of affected workers and their apparent rapid decline in lung function. Although these patients were symptomatic within <18 months of work, their illness initially was unrecognized, leading to a diagnostic delay of 8–14 months. This is consistent with the natural history of obliterative bronchiolitis, which differs significantly from much chronic obstructive lung disease, where decline is slow and risk factors more apparent."

The authors correctly report that there is no specific federal workplace safety regulation designed to protect workers exposed to diacetyl or other flavoring agents. There wasn't one 10 years ago when the microwave popcorn workers were afflicted, and there's still not one on the books.

After the popcorn workers' lung cases came to light, worker organizations in July 2006 petitioned Labor Secretary Elaine Chao for an emergency standard from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to protect workers from the flavoring hazard. The petition was denied. Shortly after taking office in March 2009, Obama's Labor Secretary Hilda Solis suggested that OSHA would move expeditiously to protect workers from this hazard. She announced:

"I am alarmed that workers exposed to food flavorings containing diacetyl may continue to be at risk of developing a potentially fatal lung disease. Exposure to this harmful chemical already has been linked to the deaths of three workers. These deaths are preventable, and it is imperative that the Labor Department move quickly to address exposure to food flavorings containing diacetyl..."

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) prepared a draft risk assessment and technical document to assist OSHA in developing a proposed rule. Although the NIOSH document was peer reviewed about a year ago, OSHA's not on a fast track to address the hazard of diacetyl or other food flavoring agents with a new regulation. The agency's most recent agenda of regulatory priorities lists this hazard under the category "long-term action."

But even without a federal regulation, shouldn't the users of these flavoring agents be aware of the inhalation risk for their workers? Didn't coffee bean processors read or hear the coverage about popcorn workers' lung and its relationship to butter flavor?? Don't the firms that sell these flavoring agents, such as Flavor & Fragrance Specialties Inc., Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Co. Inc. and Mission Flavors & Fragrances Inc., post warnings on their products about the health risks of inhalation exposure? What have the flavor manufacturers done to ensure that users of their products are not harmed by them?

And then there's the Food and Drug Administration. Diacetyl and other flavoring agents are technically regulated by FDA as food additives. FDA takes a hands-off view about these flavoring agents because they carry a long-standing designation "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). But that GRAS label pertains only to the flavoring additive when eaten. For workers exposed to these compounds in food manufacturing---from microwave popcorn and coffee beans, to snack food, candy and dog food----it's more clear than ever that flavor additives of this sort are anything but safe.

cmonforton Tue, 04/30/2013 - 04:03