Diacetyl. This ingredient in microwave popcorn is destroying workers' lungs.
So, what do the fumes do to us when we microwave it? What about movie theater concession workers?
The workers' unions finally have gotten the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to at least pretend to look into it. I have little hope the study will be sincere as long as the Bush administration operates it. After all, it's mostly Latino immigrants losing their lungs, which seems to be the real reason this White House wants to look the other way on immigration problems. 
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration did test it. OSHA reports one of four rats died after a 6-hour exposure to heated vapors of artificial butter flavoring containing 285 ppm diacetyl, yet it would not establish a cause-effect relationship between diacetyl and bronchiolitis obliterans.
Lawyers haven't overlooked the problem. The liability bandwagon starts here and here.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Step away from the popcorn!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I just read that Bush's pick, Michael Baroody, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission is a senior lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers! Although consumer products is a somewhat different topic than foods and drugs, the nomination is not surprising for this criminal Bush adminstration. I read also that the Senate may well balk at confirming his nomination, as hostile as his present lobbying interest is to the agency he is supposed to head.
Post a Comment