OSHA Moves to Protect Workers from ‘Popcorn Lung’

by Mike Hall, Mar 17, 2009

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), reversing years of foot dragging while the agency was controlled by the Bush administration, is moving quickly to protect workers from a serious lung disease caused by diacetyl, the artificial butter flavoring added to popcorn and other food products.

OSHA announced yesterday that it was fast-tracking a standard to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl by withdrawing a last-minute Bush-issued procedure known as an advance notice of proposed rule making. That notice, say safety experts, could have added two years to the standard-setting process.

In recent years, hundreds of workers in plants where diacetyl is produced or applied to food have developed the rare and sometimes fatal disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as “popcorn lung.”

Just days ago, a federal jury awarded $7.5 million to a man from Sioux City, Iowa, who had developed popcorn lung from his work as a butter flavor “mixer” in the 1990s. But Ronald Kuiper, 69, died of lung and heart failure the day before the March 12 verdict. At the time of his death, less than 30 percent of his breathing capacity remained, according to the Des Moines Register.

With the Bush notice withdrawn, the safety agency is moving a step further along in the rule-making process. Says Labor Secretary Hilda Solis:

I am alarmed that workers exposed to food flavorings containing diacetyl may continue to be at risk of developing a potentially fatal lung disease. Exposure to this harmful chemical already has been linked to the deaths of three workers. These deaths are preventable, and it is imperative that the Labor Department move quickly to address exposure to food flavorings containing diacetyl and eliminate unnecessary steps without affecting the public’s ability to comment on the rule-making process

Celeste Monforton, a former OSHA policy analyst who now teaches at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services, told BNA’s Daily Labor Report (subscription required) the Bush-issued advance notice was unnecessary because OSHA has gathered an abundance of scientific data on the risks of diacetyl over the years and that the procedure was likely to delay final action for as long as two years.

The Bush administration’s OSHA refused in September 2007 to issue an emergency standard setting diacetyl exposure limits for workers. The next day the U.S. House of Representatives voted to require OSHA to issue the emergency standard, but the bill never won final passage in the Senate.  The Bush administration issued the rule-making notice on its last day in office.

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