FDA Probes Popcorn Flavor’s Cancer Link

Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2007

FDA Probes Popcorn Flavor’s Cancer Link

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration is evaluating whether consumers, like workers in popcorn plants, can develop lung disease from inhaling a chemical additive used for butter flavoring in microwave popcorn.

A Denver physician said in a letter to agency in July that a patient who had eaten several bags of extra butter flavored popcorn each day for several years had developed symptoms similar to those of some microwave popcorn-plant workers.

The one case “does not present evidence” that consumer exposure to vapors of the chemicals diacetyle, generated by microwaving popcorn, causes lung disease, said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon. He said the agency is studying the situation, and “carefully considering the safety and regulatory issues it raises.”

ConAgra Foods Inc., the nation’s largest maker if microwave popcorn including the Orville Redenbacher’s and Act II brands, said it is eliminating “within a year” diacetyl from its microwave popcorn.

“While we are fully confident that microwave popcorn is safe for consumers to prepare and consume, we plan to eliminate the use of added diacetyl I products in order to eliminate even the perception of risks for consumers and to provide our employees who handle large quantities of diacetyl regularly with the safest possible work environment,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Childs.

The industry in 2004 sold more than three billion bags, with sales totaling more than $1 billion, ConAgra said.

In 2000, a physician reported to the Missouri health department that eight workers from a microwave popcorn factory developed lung disease. Studies conducted by the national Institute for Occupational Safety and Health concluded that cumulative exposure to diacetyl vapor overtime has the potential to cause serious lung damage and a condition known as bronchiolitis obliterans.

In April the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said workers at factories that make food flavorings as well as popcorn factories are at risk of contracting the hard-to-treat condition.

NIOSH has recommended hat manufacturers substitute the chemical with less-dangerous ones, and that workers don masks and other protective gear. Link between the chemical and lung disease have been less clear in consumers, and the agency has labeled the chemical “generally considered safe.” Last year, David Michaels, a professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, petitioned the FDA to drop the designation.

Thomas’s Comments:

I sound like a broken record in my mind. I write weekly on the hazards of the junk sold in our supermarkets as food.

One has to wonder why autism, infant heart disease, obesity, diabetes is at epidemic proportions across all races and financial classes.

IT IS OUR FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT!!!

At www.infinitehealthresources.com we offer advice on healthy living and sell natural and organic products. Why? Because it increases your chances of living a drug free healthy life.

If what we put into our bodies is making us sick, then you can only imagine what happens when you apply thousands of skin care products to your body. Try reading the ingredients. I bet you will not be able to pronounce half of what you read. I cannot.

We live in a toxic world. Made worse by the constant bombardment of environmental spraying of chem-trails in the sky and pollution.

The only chance we have to live healthy is to eat right and apply non-toxic creams, shampoos, etc., to our bodies.

Now, there are many sources of information on healthy living.

At www.infinitehealthresources.com we do not sway from the natural and organic lifestyle one bit. The Resource Center at www.infinitehealthresource.com is loaded with information from top organizations like Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, The Cancer Project and the Organic Consumer’s Association to name a few.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Young and Old. Wake up! Eighty percent of the products sold as food in our supermarkets are toxic.

Read food labels. Cook fresh food. Start slowly. Feel the difference in a few short weeks and pick up the pace as you go. Watch the pounds shed naturally.

There is no such thing as a diet. There is only a lifestyle. No tricks, no gimmicks. It’s Free!

Thomas Affatato