September 26 - By a vote of 260 to 154, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed The Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act (H.R. 2693), which requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an interim standard to protect workers from occupational exposure to diacetyl – an artificial butter-flavoring chemical associated with severe lung disease – and to set a permanent standard within two years. David Michaels, PhD of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), which has been calling for diacetyl regulation for years, applauded the House for passing the bill.

“Congress recognized that OSHA was failing to address a serious workplace hazard,” Michaels explained. “They had to make this a legislative matter because OSHA wasn’t doing its job.”

OSHA was first notified of cases of the rare and debilitating lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans at a microwave popcorn plant in 2000, and in 2002 the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a study linking the disease to airborne diacetyl exposure. Since then, additional epidemiological and animal studies have provided further evidence of the chemical’s role in lung disease.
 
Bronchiolitis obliterans is sometimes called “popcorn workers lung” because many of the first cases identified were among workers in microwave popcorn plants. Since then, additional cases have been discovered at facilities that make flavorings and other food products. Many of the victims are young, otherwise healthy nonsmokers who have been working in the facilities for just one or two years. At least five workers have already died as a result of their exposure.

Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-California) introduced the legislation, which gives OSHA 90 days to issue an interim final standard that includes measures to minimize worker exposure to diacetyl through ventilation, isolation and other engineering controls, respirators, exposure assessment, medical monitoring, and worker training. This interim standard will remain in effect until the agency issues a final standard containing a permissible exposure limit and controlling exposure to diacetyl to the lowest feasible level; the Act requires that OSHA issue this standard within two years.

“Worker health advocates would have preferred to see OSHA issue a diacetyl standard on its own rather than under Congressional mandate,” Michaels says. “But the agency made it clear that they would not take the necessary steps to protect workers from diacetyl.”

In 2006, the United Food and Commercial workers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters petitioned OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard on diacetyl. SKAPP organized 42 scientists and occupational health experts to write a letter in support of the petition.

OSHA did not address diacetyl until April of 2007, when two Congressional hearings and a front-page New York Times article focused attention on the agency’s lack of action. Then, OSHA announced a National Emphasis Program for the microwave popcorn industry; however, the program does not cover flavoring and other food manufacturers or set requirements for employers.

Diacetyl attracted public attention in early September, when Michaels broke the news of a consumer who appeared to have developed bronchiolitis obliterans as a result of his heavy microwave popcorn consumption. Dr. Cecile Rose, the chief occupational and environmental medicine physician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, diagnosed the patient and notified the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, and OSHA of the case. Michaels posted Rose’s letter on the public health blog The Pump Handle, and extensive media coverage followed.

A few weeks later, the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act was scheduled for a House vote. Two days before the vote, OSHA announced a stakeholder meeting on diacetyl and stated in a press release that it would begin the diacetyl rulemaking process. As Michaels and others noted, the agency had not committed itself to issuing a regulation, and could take several years to complete the process if they were to begin it.

The Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act passed on a bipartisan basis, with 213 Democrats and 47 Republicans voting in favor.

Read more:
Posts on The Pump Handle about diacetyl
Documents related to diacetyl and bronchiolitis obliterans
Case study: "A Case of Regulatory Failure - Popcorn Workers Lung"
Press release from House Committee on Education and Labor