Common Food Flavoring Changed Lives Forever

[The Straight Story]

Common Food Flavoring Changed Lives Forever

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cynthia White-Rhoads, Rocky Kline and Dalea and Ed Hawkins have all been diagnosed with a potentially fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans.

The other commonality they share is they were all factory workers at the Marion ConAgra plant, making butter flavored microwave popcorn. They are so sick none of them can work, 10TV's Anietra Hamper reported.

"(Doctors) said I had lungs of an 85-year-old woman," White-Rhoads said.

"My lungs are bad," Kline said. "I can't get air like I used to. Performing a simple task causes me to lose my breath."

"I have to sleep propped up all the time," said Dalea Hawkins. "I cough constantly. (I'm) just exhausted all the time."

Government researchers confirmed that they all developed the rare lung disease from their exposure to a chemical called diacetyl.

...

Despite mounting evidence of the negative health effects on workers, other companies still use diacetyl because they can.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration never instituted regulations for the chemical. Efforts to push for standards have fallen on deaf ears for a decade, Hamper reported.

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/teninvestigates/stories/2010/02/04/story-food-flavoring-popcorn.html?sid=102

[RedEarth]

1. We make our own and then add they flavor of seasonings

we're in the mood for.....cheaper and a lot more healthy.

[pansypoo53219]

3. i get popcorn at the farmer's market and pop it in a KETTLE

in OIL(corn oil for pop corn!) and sometimes a little sugar and salt. WAY better than micro shit.

no white popcorn last summer tho. but i had a large cache left in the freezer.

[Gman2]

2. I got heart failure from PBA in plastics/moldmaker, and SS dis

says that those symptoms, of sitting up to sleep, coughing always, short of breath from any activity, and throwing up, are minor, and I must try to work. Or starve. Fucking ghouls.

[ThomCat]

4. I agree. They are ghouls.

:(

They have people with No Medical Training making these decisions, deciding that absolutely nothing is a disability. There are far too many of us with severe crippling health conditions who have been denied for this system to be reasonable or legitimate.

[lib_wit_it]

6. That's horrible. So sorry about your situation. This country is an embarrassment.

[Arugula Latte]

5. Several years ago I told my husband to stop buying that crap.

It even smells like disease.

He's been making air-popped popcorn since then; that's the good stuff.

[Quantess]

7. I've noticed that microwave popcorn has sunk in popularity.

Remember in the 1990s, when people liked to eat it at work? It was a regular thing to eat in front of the TV. I never see it anymore, and that's fine with me.

[TexasObserver]

8. Recommend. It's becoming obvious the Bush admin didn't enforce safety standards.