Microwave popcorn poison

The companies that make pre-packaged microwave popcorn are telling the American people that their product is safe? Are you kidding me?

The chemical diacetyl that they put on popcorn to simulate buttery flavor is causing a potentially fatal lung disease in plant workers who breath the stuff. The disease has been given a nickname: popcorn lung. But the CEOs are looking cross-eyed and saying that breathing the same chemical in our homes is safe.

A large part of the taste experience for humans comes from smelling the things we eat. Taste and smell are directly linked which means we have to breathe diacetyl to experience the buttery flavor of microwave popcorn. Do you doubt that product-development experts and the CEOs are unaware of this?

To make matters worse, the popcorn companies have known about the problem since 2004. The companies have had time to nickname the disease yet they are giving themselves another full year before replacing diacetyl with some other chemical concoction that gives the illusion of butter flavor. Additionally, the EPA under the Republican administration has been stonewalling the issue by concealing their damaging report since 2005.

In this time of epidemic of diabetes and autism, we the people should expect better from business and government than to ply us with chemicals and illusion.

Gene Haynes