NEWS: Too Much Microwave Popcorn Can Kill You FYI

GEEK: Too Much Microwave Popcorn Can Kill You FYI

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.

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.

Ooooh. I smell a class action suit!

Hooray!

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...

... not to mention ORGANIZING PNEUMONIA.

I grow all of my popping corn by hand, myself.

so all of that greasy goodness at the bottom of the bag that ive been licking all these years is poison? good to know. ill try to kick the habit.

There's poppin' corn that DON'T come outta no paper bag?!

I wish I could take the case.

le sigh

Guess I should quit huffing paint out of popcorn bags.

Double whammy FTL

I'LL TAKE THE CASE!

You gots me an alternative?

I once got yelled at for NOT eating microwaved popcorn

Who has last laugh! ME!

I am addicted to microwave popcorn...but I only pop it halfway and then sit there all night nibbling on the kernels...and I just ordered a bunch from the cute little boy next door who's selling it for his Boy Scout troop.

I suppose I will have to invest in an air popper now and throw butter all over it myself. *le sigh*

95% of my diet, I'm fucked.

I wonder if this stuff is in other products as well. The restaurants that I work at use a few artificial butter-flavor products (VERY embarrasing, I know) for high-temperature use. One is called "Phase" (the name alone makes me wary of it), the other is "Brilliance", both are labeled as "buttery flavored oils". I wonder if I should be calling OSHA in the next few days . Very very interesting.

2 bags of microwave popcorn a day?! I don't think I could do that without throwing the stuff up and never eating it again!

And here I thought I was the only one! Glad to see I have some company +o)

but it's so yummy... wait, no, actually I don't like it. I like the one in theatres and some popcorn store at the mall but the microwave ones just don't taste the same to me... plus, BBQ popcorn is way more delicious !

Ahhh, "no definite link can be made...." I call bullshit; this guy is probably a moron.

In two days there'll be a story about someone dying from microwave popcorn. Then it will become illegal, just like in the days of prohibition...

i guess if i feel like snacking i'll just smoke another cigarette instead.....for health reasons.