Popcorn Packers' Lung - Occupational Bronchiolitis Obliterans

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On March 15, 2004, a jury awarded $20 million to a Jasper, Mo., popcorn packaging worker whose lungs were destroyed by the vapors emitted from the butter flavoring used in microwave popcorn. He was the first of 30 former workers at the popcorn factory to go to trial. All have severe lung problems; more trials are scheduled.

The worker was granted $18 million by the jury, and his wife $2 million in compensatory personal injury damages against New York-based International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., which manufactured the flavoring for the popcorn produced at the plant, and its subsidiary, Bush Boake Allen. The flavoring contains the chemical diacetyl - a ketone with butter-flavor characteristics - which the Centers for Disease Control suspects is behind the illnesses in Missouri. Other pending cases involve microwave food processing plants in Nebraska, Illinois, and Ohio. The popcorn factory was not a defendant.

This landmark legal battle linked Bronchiolitis Obliterans, also known as Popcorn Packers’ Lung, to vapors from butter flavorings in the plant’s popcorn mixing room. There is no cure for the disease, which restricts and obstructs lung functioning. Some workers are so short of breath they’re confined to their homes. Others are on lung transplant lists, a procedure with a life expectancy of just five years.

Multiple agencies have studied the workers and the popcorn factory:

• Tests by The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health —a division of the Centers for Disease Control – showed that exposure to a chemical in butter flavoring, diacetyl, caused significant declines in pulmonary function and a significant increase in bronchial diseases among factory workers. 
• Federal health investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the Missouri workers raise new concerns about possible risk for workers in other flavoring and food production industries beyond microwave popcorn. 
• An article in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the “excess rates of lung disease and lung-function abnormalities” among popcorn factory workers indicated they probably had “occupational bronchiolitis obliterans caused by the inhalation of volatile butter-flavoring ingredients.” 
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently studying chemicals released from microwave popcorn bags after they've been cooked, opened, and eaten at home.

RECENT NEWS:                                                                  

NPR : Popcorn Workers Sue Over Health Issues
Greg Allen reports on the run-up to the second trial in Joplin, Mo., where employees of a popcorn plant that made butter flavorings say the material severely damaged their lungs, in some cases leading to permanent disabilities.

• Listen Now in Real Audio or Windows Media
  http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1842838

CNN: Lawsuit: Fake popcorn butter caused disease
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/02/popcorn.trial.ap/
                                                                                            

At Brown & Crouppen, we believe victims of Bronchiolitis Obliterans, or Popcorn Packers’ Lung, have been harmed because the manufacturers knew, or should have known, that the butter flavorings were hazardous, and that they failed to warn workers of the dangers or to give instructions on the safe use of the product.

You have a right to a safe and secure working environment, and the right to seek the assistance of an experienced attorney. Brown & Crouppen has over 70 legal professionals in five offices. Contact Brown & Crouppen for a free case evaluation.

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