All this fuss, and the product in question doesn't even taste good (or remotely like butter)...

One potential upside I can see to this outrageous disregard for health and safety:  When people find out about said disregard, they will be shocked--I know I am, because I didn't think this kind of thing could happen anymore, at least in the US--and it will lead to increased regulatory caution in the future, at least for a while, until people get complacent again.  Because that's what's happened, we've gotten so used to regulatory agencies actually regulating things that we don't, as a society, feel any need to check up on them anymore.

The melamine in pet food and lead paint in toys have also shaken some people up. The trouble is that federal agencies have gone sharply downhill during the Bush administration, and administration officials seem willing to continue pursuing their policies even in the face of public disapproval.

Conagra is changing their formulation.  Maybe thanks to Grist?
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Nebraska-based ConAgra Foods Inc. will stop using the flavoring chemical diacetyl in its microwave popcorn products following the diagnosis of a Colorado man with a rare lung condition linked to exposure to the chemical, company spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said yesterday.

Weaver Popcorn Co., the nation's second-largest microwave popcorn producer behind ConAgra, announced last month that it discontinued the use of diacetyl in its products over concerns that the chemical posed a health hazard.

ConAgra's decision to discontinue use of the chemical was pre-empted by National Jewish Medical and Research Center lung specialist Cecile Rose's announcement that she was treating a 53-year-old patient for a condition called bronchiolitis obliterans.

Rose sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration in July informing them of her patient's diagnosis and the risks that home consumption of popcorn can pose.

Rose told the agencies that her patient had a similar clinical finding to affected factory workers but his only exposure to diacetyl was as "a heavy, daily consumer of butter flavored microwave popcorn" (Andrew Schneider, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 5).

"I said to him, 'This is a very weird question, but bear with me. But are you around a lot of popcorn?'" Rose said she asked her patient. "His jaw dropped and he said, 'How could you possibly know that about me? I am Mr. Popcorn. I love popcorn.'"

The man told Rose that he had eaten microwave popcorn at least twice per day for more than 10 years (Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sept. 5).

"When he broke open the bags, after the steam came out, he would often inhale the fragrance because he liked it so much," Rose said. "That's heated diacetyl, which we know from the workers' studies is the highest risk."

The diagnosis was based on measurements she made of the air quality in the patient's home that turned up diacetyl levels equal to what the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found when it began investigating worker exposure in Midwest popcorn plants in 2001.

"He was really upset that he couldn't have it anymore," Rose said. "But he complied."

An FDA spokeswoman said that the agency is considering the case as part of a review of the safety of diacetyl, which adds the buttery taste to many microwave popcorns, including Orville Redenbacher and Act II (Gardniner Harris, New York Times, Sept. 5).

Bronchiolitis obliterans is a common lung condition among workers in microwaveable popcorn production plants who are exposed to diacetyl. Diacetyl is a flavoring agent used in artificial popcorn butter, dog food and other products. While previously thought to be non-lethal to consumers purchasing the end product, exposure to raw amounts of the chemical in its powder form are linked to the development of bronchiolitis obliterans.

Bronchiolitis obliterans is a lung condition that kills bronchioles, or crucial airways branching off the lungs like twigs at the end of the respiratory tree where oxygen enters the blood.

OSHA is investigating the chemical's health effects on workers and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) recently introduced a bill in the House Education and Labor Committee that would force OSHA to issue an interim final standard for worker exposure to diacetyl consistent with a NIOSH alert issued in 2004 (E&E Daily, June 19). -- RJD

This is a new one for the regulatory agencies.  Diacetyl is a naturally occurring chemical and found naturally in foods.  The as eaten use level in microwave popcorn is no higher than the level it would be found in naturally churned butter.  So as a natural compound in food FDA does not regulate it.  It is GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe).  So when someone makes artificial diacetyl (usually by yeast fermentation) it is still the same chemical and thus carries the same GRAS status.  Since the FDA has all regulatory authority over food additives the EPA, OSHA, DOT, CPSC, and State Governments are on thin ice for legal standing if they try to regulate its use.  OSHA is now trying to protect workers but how far should they go.  Should they require French chefs who sauté way took much stuff in butter to wear NIOSH-approved respirator masks?  There are tens of thousands of natural compounds in foods which when concentrated are corrosive, terragenic, mutagenic, or just plane skull-and-crossbones lethal.  Where do you stop... mustard contains a class 1 carcinogen, broccoli a naturally occurring nerve toxin, all fruits in the cherry (Prunus) family contain cyanide, tea/chocolate/asparagus contain toxins that can cause calcium deficiency or kidney failure...

It is a regulatory issue that does not fit within our current framework.
Since diacetyl is THE natural compound that gives butter its flavor what do you replace it with. More complex chemistries that are not from butter, or natural butter concentrate that would still be full if diacetyl.
In the food industry there are many chemical hazards to workers that are not addressed because the regulatory framework says that they are GRAS materials.
Making the link for popcorn workers has been relatively easy due to the high concentrations involved, but damage for others happens over longer time scales.  Noone in industry and government wants to open that can of worms, or they may need to regulate French chefs and people making spice blends with mustard powder.