Hey, kids: the word of the day is diacetyl.

It's a fun one, I swear. It is born through the miracle of fermentation, when acetolactate compounds decompress into smaller carbon/oxygen-heavy groups after being released from yeast cells, and it goes by a lot of other names, like 2,3-butanedione, dimethyldiketone, and dimethylglyoxal. Its chemical formula is C4H6O2, and it melts at approximately 26ºF. It is charmingly described as a yellow-green liquid in its most basic state, and it has its very own OSHA code, not to mention a comprehensive listing on the Center for Disease Control's Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances! There, it lists a lot of animal types since the 1970s that have died from exposure to it (a rat once died from sitting next to it for six hours in a 60% concentration!) and some extra-fun reported side effects -- it is most certainly an eye, nose, throat, and skin irritant, and is extremely likely to be responsible for a little something called BOOP. Hey, that's a fun acronym to say, isn't it? Incidentally, it stands for bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia. Which may be a little less fun. I'm not going to go into the specifics of the illness, but let's just say that, when it comes to your lungs and bronchial tubes, you really don't want the Latin root word for obliterate within about a ten-mile radius.

One more thing about diacetyl: it has a flavor. Specifically, it tastes like butter. For this reason, it is the main ingredient artificial butter flavoring, making it a mainstay in one of the most popular snacks of the late-20th century -- microwave popcorn. (Oh, aren't you just dying of hunger now?)

Now, I know, it's totally shocking that microwavable junk food would have weird chemicals in it, and officials stress that there is somehow no definitive evidence of a causal link (read: there haven't been any official tests run), but when people start referring to bronchiolitis obliterans as Popcorn Workers' Lung, there might be a problem. Not that it's gone widely noticed. See, here's the thing of it (and the reason why it's called Popcorn Workers' Lung, and not just Popcorn Lung): eating a bag of popcorn every week when your mail-order movie rentals come in isn't going to kill you. It's the breathing in the chemicals to excess, day in and day out, that will do it. Dozens of workers at microwave popcorn factories have come down with the ailment, some dying and some on wait for lung transplants. It was only recently, however, that someone outside a factory (a fine gentleman with a penchant for eating two bags of popcorn a day for the past decade) caught the Popcorn Workers' Lung, bringing the whole deal to a head and kind of forcing authorities to recognize that diacetyl is serious business.

This probably could have equally been a politics article, because what's going on with our friend diacetyl is in the political forum: this week, the House of Representatives is going to pass a bill. A bill about butter. Or lack thereof.

The House of Representatives is set to pass legislation, the Popcorn Workers Lung Disease Prevention Act (H.R. 2693), that requires OSHA to set an interim standard for workplace exposure to the butter-flavor chemical diacetyl (2,3-butanedione) in 90 days and a final standard within two years.

It sounds like a slow-going process, but 90 days probably isn't too bad in the grand political scheme of things and, as it is, several microwave popcorn-producing companies like ConAgra have voluntarily offered to remove it from the ominously-vague "artificial flavors" portion of their ingredients list, a small victory for popcorn workers everywhere. As for you, continue to enjoy it -- like I said, it won't kill you. Just, you know, don't eat too much. You never know.

_DictionaryGirl_ never liked microwave popcorn anyway.

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

SEP 27, 2007 08:15 AM

Ooooh. I smell a class action suit!

Hooray!

Bilharzia

I'm lost

April 2004

SEP 27, 2007 08:35 AM

Diacetyl is also formed during the wine making process, most notably in heavily-oaked California chardonnays that have been allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation. It imparts a buttery flavour there too.
I can't wait for the warning labels...

Flux

SUICIDEGIRL

Georgia, USA

SEP 27, 2007 08:44 AM

People still eat microwave popcorn? The mind boggles.

meatpieboy

Korea, D.P.R.

June 2004

SEP 27, 2007 08:47 AM

... not to mention ORGANIZING PNEUMONIA.