Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Ohio popcorn plant workers say flavoring hurts lungs"

          Popcorn is a source of civic pride in Marion, Ohio, home of a yearly popcorn festival, a museum that claims the world's largest popcorn popper collection, and a factory that makes ACT II and Orville Redenbacher's microwave popcorn. Marion's popcorn industry has also been a source of lawsuits when workplace inhalation of the powdery butter flavoring that coats microwave popcorn was linked to a potentially fatal lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans, which inflames the lungs and results in severe, permanent shortness of breath. The first Ohio lawsuit was filed in 2003.
          The disease hasn't killed anybody at Marion's ConAgra plant, but dozens of current and former employees who claim lung damage have sued makers of the butter flavoring, called diacetyl. Lawyers are interviewing more than 200 additional potential plaintiffs from the factory, which employs 250. Allen Miller, 40, of Upper Sandusky is among those who sued. He says he quit working at the factory last year because he became sick after five years of inhaling buttery fumes. Another plaintiff, Brent Stevens, 32, of Galion, still works at the Marion popcorn plant even though respiratory problems have forced him to give up playing basketball with his kids.
          "I am one of the least severe cases - some of the others can barely breathe" says Stevens, who stays on because the factory pays relatively well. He says most workers make about $10 an hour. Stevens and Miller both worked at the plant before many of its flavor-handling precautions were implemented. Elsewhere in the country, more than 200 lawsuits have been filed by workers at other plants that use diacetyl.

Learn more about butter flavoring lung injuries and lawsuits against manufacturers using diacetyl.