the constant skeptic

popcorn lung original article here…

Wayne Watson loved microwave popcorn so much he would eat at least two bags each night, breathing in the steam from the just-opened package, until doctors told him it may have made him sick.
Watson, whose case of “popcorn lung” is the sole reported case of the disease in a non-factory worker, said he is convinced his heavy consumption of popcorn caused his health problems.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, the 53-year-old furniture salesman had a message to convey: “America: Read the labels, and just be careful about what we put into our bodies and always practice moderation,” Watson said. “Don’t go crazy.”

Popcorn flavoring contains the chemical diacetyl, which has been linked to lung damage in factory workers testing hundreds of bags of microwave popcorn per day and inhaling its fumes.

The chemical is a naturally occurring compound that gives butter its flavor and is also found in cheese and even wine, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

It’s been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a flavor ingredient, but hundreds of workers have sued flavoring makers in recent years for lung damage.

(my favorite line here, quote of the year….)
There are no warnings from federal regulators, nor is there medical advice on how consumers should treat news of the rare, life-threatening disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, also known as popcorn lung. (the funny and sick sad thing is - this is not made up, that is the real nickname for it)

Dr. Cecile Rose, a lung specialist at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver who diagnosed Watson’s case in February, told the AP that no definite link has been established between Watson’s heavy popcorn consumption and his lung disease, but that “the possibility raises public health concerns.”

(lots of things raise concerns, like how are we going to cope with the desertification of africa, the propagation of AIDS, the thread of avian influenza, the spread of extremist ideology, the growth of anti-capitalism, globalism without environmentalism, environmentalism without common sense, 9-11 conspiracy theories and theorists, preemptive strike philosophy as foreign policy, the privatization of health care, the growing gap between rich and poor…. and the list goes on and on, but popcorn lung does not even make the top 100 list of things that raise concerns)