The other day at my office, somebody burned popcorn in the microwave. (And why, when it seems there's always a button specifically designed so you can avoid that...?) Usually, I don't care so much, but this particular time, it really got on my olfactory nerves, in an old-hot-dog, dry-pee smell kind of way. And now we have this to contend with:



Apparently, this beautifully simple molecular structure, diacetyl, which gives microwave popcorn (and other synthetically enhanced foods) its strangely artificial buttery taste, rapes the lungs of those who breathe in its noxious fumes, potentially causing bronchiolitis obliterans aka "popcorn workers' lung" : "Usually found only in people who are poisoned by chemical fires or chemical warfare ...(it) renders its victims unable to exert even a little energy without becoming winded or faint" -- and the only cure is a lung transplant.

My point isn't to tell everyone to boycott Orville Redenbacher -- people should be able to figure these things out on their own. But the fact is, this is actually old news; two years ago, a popcorn plant worker won $2.7 million for his PWL. And if people really cared, this stuff, not to mention half the crap you find in supermarkets, would be banned already. Right?

Read the grist.org and the Times story.