That buttery aroma might be toxic, too
Common chemical in popcorn at center of concern
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
http://seattlepi. nwsource. com/food/ 329640_popcorn30 .html
Pop Weaver, one of the largest producers of microwave popcorn, is removing
a controversial chemical flavoring agent from its products.
The chemical -- diacetyl -- adds buttery taste. Government worker safety
investigators have linked exposure to the synthetic butter to the
sometimes fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food
production and flavoring factories.
And while Pop Weaver has dropped diacetyl from its product, it remains in
widespread use in thousands of other consumer products, including the
microwave popcorn brands Orville Redenbacher and Act II.
Despite the worker safety findings -- and despite scores of jury decisions
and settlements awarding millions of dollars to workers who sued after
having their lungs destroyed by exposure to diacetyl -- neither the Food
and Drug Administration nor the Consumer Product Safety Commission have
investigated. The FDA years ago declared the chemical safe for
consumption. Labels on almost all products containing it call it a
flavoring and only rarely do the labels mention diacetyl.
The only government investigators to examine whether consumers are at risk
-- whether diacetyl is released when consumers pop corn in their home
microwaves, and if so, how much -- is the Environmental Protection Agency.
But to the frustration of many public health workers, the findings of the
EPA's study -- which began in 2003 and was completed last year -- have
been released only to the popcorn industry.
In part, it was the EPA's study that led Pop Weaver to reformulate its
flavoring without diacetyl, said Mike Weaver, chief executive officer of
the 80-yearold family-owned company.
"We have to have good flavors, but at the same time we have to have
ingredients that consumers feel good about and we were hearing too many
concerns raised about diacetyl," he said. "With these growing concerns and
with EPA's actions, we felt it was the prudent to stop using diacetyl and
we have.";
In addition to Pop Weaver and six other private brands, the Indiana-based
company also sells "Trail's End" popcorn for the Boy Scouts of America.
Five million boxes were sold last year, the Scouts said.
"Maybe the big food conglomerates don't take diacetyl seriously, but we
take it very, very seriously," Weaver said. "We sell popcorn only. Without
it, we're out of business."
ConAgra Foods, which says it is the largest supplier of the 3 billion bags
of microwave popcorn sold worldwide each year, declined to comment on Pop
Weaver's action.
However, in interviews earlier this month, corporate spokeswoman Stephanie
Childs told the Seattle P-I that ConAgra has been "looking at the diacetyl
issue very seriously over the years."
Scientists and consultants for ConAgra, whose brands include Orville
Redenbacher and Act II, found in 2004 that diacetyl was released when
freshly popped bags of corn were opened. However, Childs said that the
company saw no need to change its flavorings.
"Based on all the information we have available to us, we are confident
the everyday, normal use of butter-flavored microwave popcorn in the home
is safe,"; she said.
But in a November 2004 letter to the EPA, Patricia Verduin, ConAgra's
senior vice president for product quality, wrote: "We believe it is
imperative that the health and safety of this product be assured to the
extent possible within the very near future." In the letter to the
then-head of the EPA's Office of Research and Development, she said that
ConAgra had developed a "Consumer Exposure Risk Index"; to address
potential health concerns from material released when the bag of popped
corn is opened.
ConAgra declined to discuss what level of risk it documented to consumers
from vapors from diacetyl, other flavoring ingredients or the bag itself.
"We shared that information with EPA on a confidential basis and we look
to them for the next step,"; Childs said. "We, as well as the rest of the
world, are awaiting the release of EPA's study."
But the industry already knows what the EPA found, according to George
Gray, the current head of the EPA's office of Research and Development. He
told the P-I that the popcorn industry was given the opportunity to review
the final results before the study was submitted for publication.
Gray said there was nothing improper in allowing the industry to review
the findings, saying it was necessary to convince industry that none of
their confidential business information, such as what the flavoring agents
are and the construction of the popping bag, was released to the public.
Further, Gray said the information could not be released to other public
health professionals because it would prevent his scientists from getting
their work published in peer-reviewed journals.
However, most prominent medical and scientific journals said that
exceptions are always made.
"We're not going to punish researchers for disclosing information that is
of vital interest to the public health," said Karen Pedersen, manager of
media relations for The New England Journal of Medicine.
"EPA cannot be permitted to play these games with matters that are
important to public health. This is just questionable science at its
worst," said David Michaels, director of the Project on Scientific
Knowledge and Public Policy at George Washington University's School of
Public Health. "Diacetyl is a dangerous chemical, declared safe, for the
most part, by the flavoring industry."
The importance of the EPA's findings is increased because no one outside
the industry is examining what consumers and workers who pop corn in
theaters, discount stores, school gyms and fairgrounds are being exposed
to.
Through 2003 and 2004 there was heavy news coverage of federal
occupational health specialists investigating the cases of hundreds of
workers sickened at six Midwest popcorn plants. The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, which investigates worker health issues,
had determined that it was exposure to the vapors from heated butter
flavoring that was debilitating the workers. The most likely culprit, the
health detectives concluded, was the diacetyl in the flavoring. All of the
workers who were diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans or other serious
lung injuries worked with the flavoring.
In the midst of this, Jacky Rosati, an investigator from the EPA's
National Risk Management Laboratory in Research Triangle Park, N.C., said
she would try to determine how much diacetyl consumers might be exposed to
when they popped corn at home.
Rosati and her team, all scientists with the EPA's Indoor Environmental
Management Branch, collected multiple bags of 50 of the most popular
brands of microwave popcorn.
The corn was popped in a specially constructed box containing an old
microwave and air collection filters. Measurements were taken of the type
and concentrations of the chemicals detected in the vapor or steam
released when the bags are opened.
"We said let's look at what goes into the bag, popcorn, chemical
ingredients, materials that coat the bag, and then let's determine what
gets released into the indoor air when you pop it," said Bill Farland,
then the EPA's deputy assistant administrator for science, research and
development.
The final corn was popped and the data collected in the fall of 2005 and
Rosati's report was sent to EPA scientists for review.
Meanwhile, more cases of the lung disease were being reported to the
NIOSH. More workers are fighting to get onto lung transplant lists, which
is their only hope for survival. The manager and the owner of a Detroit
company that manufactures popcorn carts were diagnosed. The death of a man
who was Montana's largest popcorn supplier was attributed to the popcorn
flavoring he used. The NIOSH found that his daughter and son-in-law who
took over the family business were also sickened, this time from the
butter-flavored oil they used.
Back at the EPA, Rosati was waiting for industry -- three popcorn
companies and the flavoring trade association -- to complete its review.
"This is not the way that our government agencies should be protecting the
public's interest," said George Washington's Michaels. "With this
arm-in-arm relationship between government scientists and the industry
using diacetyl, how can the public feel that they are learning the truth
about this chemical which is in thousands of products?&
