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?"
It had to be done with industry's
help, said Farland, who has since
retired. He said he doubted that the EPA
would have authorized the study if
Rosati had proposed to do it without
industry involvement.
"The only thing that industry got to
look for is confidential business
information," said Jennifer Wood, the
EPA's press secretary. "They could make
no changes to the findings."
Meanwhile, as the study was being
offered to various journals, the tally
of injured workers increased and became
more varied. They came from a candy
factory in Chicago, from a Tennessee
potato chip company, and one, then
three, and now more than 20 from six
different California companies that made
and sold flavorings with diacetyl. Their
physicians say a couple will die because
they won't survive the wait for a
transplant. Back in Washington, the EPA
says that a journal, which it declined
to identify, will publish Rosati's study
"this fall."
Ultimately, all Rosati can report is
the amount of diacetyl and other
chemicals released when the bag is
opened. The study wasn't designed to
provide any health-related answers, Gray
acknowledged.
Without more knowledge about the
toxicity of diacetyl no one can
extrapolate the hazard of what is
released when the popcorn is opened, or
from any of the other diacetyl-containing
products used in the home. This is
because no one knows specifically what
amount of diacetyl will harm humans.
That's likely to remain the case unless
the industry decides to share its
knowledge or the FDA reverses course and
decides testing is needed after all.
SECRET INGREDIENTS: A CONTINUING
EXAMINATION OF THE SAFETY OF OUR FOOD
WHAT IS DIACETYL?
A naturally occurring substance found
in many dairy products and some wine. It
was first produced synthetically in
Europe and is added to thousands of
foods throughout the world to increase
or enrich butter flavoring.
WHAT PRODUCTS CONTAIN DIACETYL?
Microwave popcorn, potato chips,
baked goods and candies, frozen food,
artificial butter, cooking oils and
sprays, beer, dog food and others.
HOW DIACETYL HARMS PEOPLE
Worker hazards: In
manufacturing plants, it's been linked
to bronchiolitis obliterans --
irreversible obstructive lung diseases
-- for which lung transplants are often
the only way to survive. Lawsuits
against diacetyl manufacturers by
hundreds of workers in popcorn,
flavoring and other food plants claiming
injury from breathing diacetyl have led
to jury awards and settlements of more
than $20 million.
Consumer hazards: The Food and
Drug Administration and the Consumer
Product Safety Commission have declined
to study the impact on consumers. The
Environmental Protection Agency has
looked at the vapors from heated
diacetyl as an air pollutant but has not
released the results to the public or to
public health professionals.
Pending action: Congress
ordered the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration to develop and
enforce standards for worker exposure to
diacetyl. In California, legislation has
been drafted that would ban the use of
diacetyl by 2010. Rep. Rosa Delauro, D-Conn.,
has asked the FDA to ban diacetyl until
it can be thoroughly studied.
