Associated Press, "Popcorn worker's lawsuit claims lung damage"

       A woman who worked at the Pop Secret microwave popcorn plant in Iowa City has sued several companies that manufacture butter flavoring, claiming that inhaling the flavoring gave her a rare lung disease. Vicki Stillmunkes, 46, of Cedar Rapids, said in the lawsuit filed in federal court that she was diagnosed with the disease, bronchial obliterans, after working at the plant for about five years. The disease is commonly known as "popcorn packer's lung."
          Earlier this year, Eric Peoples of Carthage, Mo., was awarded $20 million by a jury after he claimed he got the disease from working in a popcorn plant. The defendant in that case, International Flavors and Fragrances Inc., of New York, is one of the companies named in Stillmunkes' lawsuit. The attorney in the Missouri case, Ken McClain, is representing Stillmunkes.
          Another of her lawyers, Kathryn Barnett, works for the national law firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, that has been actively seeking out former popcorn plant workers for possible lawsuits. "We hope to help the people we represent, and if others seek us out we would certainly consider trying to help them as well," Barnett said.