Step away from the popcorn!

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.