As cases of ‘popcorn workers lung’ spread,
unions demand action from federal OSHA
Diacetyl workers are also being diag-
nosed with asthma, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, emphysema and
severe lung impairment at far higher
rates than normal.
Late last year, the Teamsters Union
and the United Food and Commercial
Workers appealed to the federal Occu-
pational Safety and Health Adminis-
tration (OSHA) to do something about
it. Both unions are affiliated with the
Change to Win labor federation.
In June, 14 members of Congress,
led by Democrat Lynn Woolsey of
California, introduced a bill to speed
things up. House Resolution 2693, the
Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Pre-
vention Act, would require OSHA to
issue rules limiting exposure, set up
medical monitoring of exposed work-
ers, and require protective equipment
and safer procedures.
Diacetyl is used for aroma and taste
in butter, some cheeses and in snack
and bakery products. It occurs natu-
Hundreds of workers are
contracting severe lung
diseases from exposure to
diacetyl, a chemical in
butter flavoring
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
There’s something in the popcorn.
Government agencies say con-
sumers are safe, but workers exposed
day in and day out to diacetyl, a butter-
flavored chemical additive, are coming
down with severe lung diseases at an
alarming rate. That includes workers
in the chemical factories that make the
stuff, as well as workers in plants mak-
ing microwave popcorn.
Lung diseases that are almost never
found in patients under 40 years old,
like bronchiolitis obliterans (chronic
scarring of the airways), are turning up
among workers exposed to diacetyl.
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rally in butter and in beer, but not in
the concentrated form workers are ex-
posed to. It’s another case of the say-
ing “the dose makes the poison” —
something safe at low levels becomes
harmful when concentrated, and in this
case inhaled.
In March 2004, a Missouri jury or-
dered International Flavors and Fra-
grances, Inc. and a subsidiary to pay
$20 million to a former microwave
popcorn worker whose lungs were so
badly injured as to require a lung
transplant.
The San Francisco-based Lieff
Cabraser law firm is representing a
growing list of diacetyl plaintiffs in
lawsuits. [Lieff Cabraser also repre-
sents Wal-Mart workers in a class-ac-
tion suit over off-the-clock work.]
Lieff Cabraser attorney Steve Cas-
sidy said there are no diacetyl plain-
tiffs in Oregon or Washington yet.
Oregon OSHA has been monitoring
what’s been happening at the federal
level, says spokesperson Kevin Weeks,
but it’s not clear there are manufactur-
ing plants in Oregon that are exposing
workers to diacetyl on an ongoing ba-
sis. If a federal standard goes into ef-
fect, state agencies would be required
within six months to adopt it or set
their own standards at least as vigor-
ous.
In this case, California OSHA has
been out in front of federal OSHA on
diacetyl. The California Assembly
passed legislation to urge Cal-OSHA
to make the regulation of diacetyl a
high priority, and Cal-OSHA has be-
gun screening flavoring industry
workers before and after exposure to
diacetyl.
But California Labor Federation
legislative advocate Jeremy Smith is
also concerned about the risk to other
kinds of workers who are exposed,
like bakery workers adding butter fla-
voring to icing.
Though the companies that make
diacetyl are nonunion, Smith has been
attending California OSHA meetings
about diacetyl for a year, thanks to a
state law that gives organized labor a
seat at the table with industry when
new safety rules are worked out. Oc-
cupational safety experts from UFCW
and Teamsters headquarters have also
been flying out to attend the meetings.
“Unfortunately, they’re not testing
downstream users,” Smith said. “For
example, go into a grocery store, to the
bakery counter, where they're frosting
a birthday cake. They’re probably
around some level of diacetyl.”
“NIOSH [the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health] has
been looking at it for 15 years,” Smith
said, “and they can’t put their finger on
permissible exposure level.”
“If they would just use real butter,
people wouldn’t get sick,” he added.
Health care is
main issue in strike
at Columbia Ford
LONGVIEW, Wash. — Health care
insurance — and who should pay for it
— has led to another strike in the Pacific
Northwest.
The latest is at Columbia Ford here,
where 31 mechanics and parts and lube
department workers — members of
Machinists Lodge 1350 and Teamsters
Local 58 — walked off the job June 18
over the issue of capping health insur-
ance payments.
Columbia Ford wants to cap its
monthly contributions for health insur-
ance at $650 per worker. That means
Machinists would have to immediately
start paying $133 a month out of pocket
and Teamsters would have to pay $100
a month out of pocket.
Workers say they are wary of how
much more they would pay as future
health insurance costs continue to rise.
“We are not asking for the world
here,” said Brian King, Teamsters Local
58 business agent. Local 58 represents
10 striking workers. “Our proposals
have been reasonable but the company’s
offer amounts to less take-home pay for
the workers who will be forced to nearly
triple their monthly payments for health
care.”
Three years ago employees changed
insurance plans to save the dealership
money. “They took a lesser plan and
less benefits,” Dan Morgan, a Machin-
ists business agent, told the Longview
Daily News.
Last week the company began ad-
vertising for replacement workers.
503-860-7724
email: lymanwarnock@msn.com
website: oregonfirst.com/lymanwarnock
Call
503-
288-3311
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