Unions Seek Action on ‘Popcorn Lung’

[Omaha Steve]

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3615


Unions Seek Action on ‘Popcorn Lung’
by Brendan Coyne

Aug. 31 – Frustrated by inaction at the federal level, two labor unions last week asked California to issue emergency rules protecting workers from exposure to diacetyl, a chemical flavoring tied to a rare lung disease.

In a petition last Wednesday, the western states’ arm of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the California State Labor Federation demanded that the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) immediately require companies that use diacetyl to control airborne levels and provide workers with respirators. The petition also calls on the agency to provide workers with information on the dangers of the chemical and asks that Cal-OSHA initiate inspections and develop a permanent rule governing diacetyl.

Diacetyl is a commonly used synthetic butter flavoring. Since 2000, the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has linked diacetyl exposure to dozens of cases of an often fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans.

FULL story at link above.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. There was a case in MO

The workers won!

Jury Awards Popcorn Worker $15 Million - 04/01/2005

A jury has awarded $15 million in damages to a former employee of Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. and his wife on the grounds that the man suffered irreparable lung damage from breathing in butter flavoring fumes at the company's microwave popcorn factory in Jasper, Mo.

A lawsuit filed by Richard Brand, a former maintenance worker at the Gilster-Mary Lee plant, and his wife, Lana, against the makers of the butter flavoring -- New York-based International Flavor and Fragrances Inc. and its subsidiary, Bush Boake Allen Inc. -- claimed that butter flavoring chemicals produced by the two companies were hazardous and that the defendants failed to warn plant workers of the dangers of inhaling the fumes.

Richard Brand contends that he developed a rare and irreversible lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans -- also known as Popcorn Packer's Lung -- from exposure to diacetyl, a chemical in the butter flavoring sold by the defendants to Gilster-Mary Lee.

A jury in the Circuit Court of Jasper awarded Richard Brand $12 million and Lana Brand $3 million following a 2-week trial.

more . . .

http://www.occupationalhazards.com/articles/13174

[whistle]

2. Our industrialized society is murdering innocent and unknowing

...people and nobody is accountable or held responsible. To save a few pennies so corporations can make millions countless people are exposed to dangerous chemicals on their popcorn and in their food and drink.