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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 59,684,770 |
 Fatal Disease From Flavoring Raises Flags Author: Baltimore Sun Source: Yahoo Title: FATAL DISEASE FROM FLAVORING RAISES FLAGS A potentially fatal lung disease linked to chemicals used in food flavorings poses a growing health risk, according to government scientists who are questioning the food industry's willingness to protect its workers. Bronchiolitis obliterans first emerged as a threat within the food industry in 2000, when the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health was called to a southwest Missouri popcorn plant to investigate lung illnesses among workers. Investigators subsequently found the disease among popcorn workers throughout the Midwest. They linked it to diacetyl, a substance that is found naturally in many foods but which also is artificially produced and widely used as a less expensive way to enhance flavor or impart the taste of butter. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 7 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Sloppy Reporting | Apr 27th. at 11:14:18 am EDT |
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me A very few newspapers retain specific tech reporters with competence in fields they cover, but most do not. Were the writer of this article competent, "diacetyl" would not have been used as if a specific substance. That's merely a common radical, a component of many substances with very different traits and applications. As to reader competency, that imposes additional limits which lead very few papers to write above the reader level of USA Today, which itself is far too low for meaningful coverage of many issues (in turn a major issue of citizen competency as voters or jurors, or caring for themselves) . It's amazing how many readers of an article like this jump to the false conclusion that "chemicals are harmful". This article is about extreme concentrations of substances in industrial food manufacturing environments, which most people don't experience. Water, in ideal unpolluted forms, is hazardous in excess, as are green vegetables, whether grown hydroponically or on pesticide free organic fertilizer only land. Many common herbs and spices witches pride themselves on using are potentially lethal, if consumed in sloppy industrial exposure concentrations. Even cholesterol is necessary for cell walls in humans, not some inherent evil substance, despite how saturated fats consumed in ways causing arterial plaque can be very unhealthy. For the average American consumer of snacks as a nervous habit rather than dietary need, it's likely that trace levels of artificial flavors on microwave or pre-bagged popcorn are less unhealthy than traditional alternatives with saturated fats, cholesterol, and 3 times the calorie content of current "healthy popcorn" products. We're unlikely to ever inhale what's present around some factories, whereas the very nature of food overuse poses serious problems in our culture. Most homes are full of potentially dangerous items. An OSHA MSDS for a typical steel beem lists the hazards of it burning, being dropped on a foot, and those from various trace metals if inhaled or eaten. None of those are real risks while that steel supports the center of a house, though all are possible during commercial cutting, grinding, and handling operations. What would it take for Americans to grow up, and learn to interpret health and safety risks rationally, within realistic contexts? |
| Hazardous To Your Health | Apr 26th. at 8:34:18 pm EDT |
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me The trouble with chemicals is that -no matter what they are sooner or later too much exposure yields an ailment. Additives and chemical compounds of any kind are usually in a stronger, purer form before they are mixed in with whatever is being made. So this wouldn't be too unlikely. |
| I Keep Telling People .... | Apr 26th. at 12:26:07 pm EDT |
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Leafy (Albuquerque, New Mexico) - Email Me ... artificial or "enhanced" flavors are bad. I read labels. You would be surprised at how many "ingredients" are in any given product that is produced by the major American "food" manufacturers. The bigger the company, the more chemicals. Many of their products even have several different MSG-like additives. And don't teven get me started on corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup .... As for popcorn, I pop mine in a wok. With butter and a little bit of canola oil. Works fine, and it tastes way better than any artificial or "enhanced" pseudo-popcorn. |
| Flavored Popcorn Oil | Apr 26th. at 1:27:17 am EDT |
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J & V Enterprises (Sweetwater, Tennessee) - Email Me Consider this article the next time you decide to pop popcorn in a pan using a butter flavored popcorn oil. When the oil is hot it is bound to be releasing this into the air. |
| Some Diacetyl Is Naturally Occurring. | Apr 25th. at 9:50:17 pm EDT |
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Lora (Leominster, Massachusetts) - Email Me And it really does taste great. The buttery flavor in butterscotch, the same butter flavor in many beers and wines, is all a natural fermentation product. It's just when there is so much of it concentrated in one place as a fume, it becomes hazardous. Mmmm...Cream soda with a shot of Butterscotch Schnapps and a shot of Stoli Vanil...Yummy. Too bad, I wonder how the DeKuyper workers are doing? They are exposed as well. |
| Sophisticated Campaigns | Apr 25th. at 12:46:22 pm EDT |
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karrie9 (Kenosha, Wisconsin) - Email Me "No laws broken, no citations issued and not one dollar paid in fines or penalties." Confined Space (Blog) : News and Commentary on Workplace Health & Safety, Labor and Politics [Web LINK] The above article refers to a 25 page report (below) on industry's influence on our regulatory and tort system. One of the current aims includes interfering with the ability to use the tort system to sue chemical manufacturers: [Web LINK] One point made is that chemicals are not innocent until proven guilty by way of human suffering and mounting body counts. |
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