Several bloggers have been following the story of Julie MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary who oversaw the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serviceâs endangered species program and resigned in disgrace last week, after it was revealed that sheâd been giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents. GrrlScientist at Living the Scientific Life, James Hrynyshyn at Island of Doubt, and […]
Regulation
Even the National Research Council Couldnât Kill It: Dudley Resurrects OMBâs Risk Assessment Bulletin
By David Michaels Matt Madia at Reg Watch has tipped us off to an article about the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs head Susan Dudley (in the subscription-only BNA), in she which gives us a preview of what we can expect from this part of the executive branch during the remainder of the Bush […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Look and Ye Shall Find: New Study of Lung Disease in Flavoring Workers
By David Michaels The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has just released a study examining lung disease and exposure to flavor chemicals among workers at the Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Company factory in Commerce, California. One or possibly two cases of bronchiolitis obliterans had been known to public health authorities before the […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Eight Months Later, Will FDA Finally Consider Diacetyl’s Safety?
By David Michaels Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), chair of the House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee that funds the FDA has called on Food and Drug Administration to ban diacetyl until more research is completed. As we’ve written (here and here, for example), diacetyl is the artificial butter flavor chemical that has been crippling workers […]
The Department of Labor recently published its semi-annual regulatory agenda with revised (again) target dates for OSHA and MSHA rules. The Department goes through this exercise twice a year, but it is a rare occasion when the “Timetable for Action” dates are actually met. After just a few moments comparing this agenda to the one published […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Preventing Flavor Workers’ Lung Disease: A Tale of Two Regulatory Systems
By David Michaels In the last few days, the national media has finally focused on the failure of OSHA to protect workers from devastating lung disease caused by exposure to artificial butter flavor. (The problem goes well beyond microwave popcorn factories, to the flavor industry and other snack food plants.) Articles in the Washington Post, […]
During the April 24, 2007 House Workforce Protection Subcommittee hearing, â”Have OSHA Standards Kept up with Workplace Hazards?”, the Bush administrationâs record in promulgating occupational safety and health standards was a hot topic. (âWith all of those [rules] that have been cast aside,â asked an indignant Congressman Hare (D-IL)â âwhatâs OSHA been doing?â)       […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
Flavor Workersâ Lung Disease: What Do We Know and What Should Be Done?
By David Michaels All of a sudden, America has become acutely aware of the terrible lung disease caused by workplace exposure to artificial butter flavor. Last week, the failure of OSHA to do anything in response to the outbreak of cases across the country was the subject of several powerful newspaper articles (including a front […]
Flavoring Workers' Lung (Popcorn/Diacetyl)
The NY Times on Industry Foxes and the Regulatory Chicken Coop
By David Michaels Following up on a powerful indictment of OSHAâs failure to protect workers from diacetyl and other hazards published two days ago in the New York Times, todayâs edition of the newspaper has a scathing editorial on the demise of OSHA under the Bush Administration. The editorial writers particularly go after OSHA Assistant […]
By David Michaels On April 26, 2002, exactly five years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about the risk of a terrible and sometime fatal lung disease, bronchiolitis obliterans, in microwave popcorn workers. The report appeared in the CDC’s widely-disseminated Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Since then, dozens of workers […]