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OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is planning to act quickly to protect workers from a severe lung disease caused by diacetyl, an artificial butter flavoring generally added to popcorn and some other food products. OSHA said that it was speeding up the process to set a standard to protect workers from exposure to diacetyl by canceling a procedure known as an advance notice of proposed rule making. The Bush-issued notice, according to safety professionals, would add at least two years to the standard-setting process. Hundreds of workers in plants where diacetyl is made or used have developed a deadly disease called “bronchiolitis obliterans” or “popcorn lung”. A federal judge recently awarded $7.5 million to a man from Sioux City, Iowa, who had developed this disease as a result of his job as a butter flavor mixer (news here). In September 2007, the Bush administration’s OSHA declined to issue an emergency standard setting diacetyl exposure limits for workers. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said that the OSHA is moving a step further along in the rule-making process as the Bush-issued notice withdrawn.
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Acanthamoeba keratitis
