OSHA Moves to Protect Workers from ‘Popcorn Lung’
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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.”
