Beware the danger of buttered microwave popcorn

My parents don't like butter on their popcorn. We used to have a hot oil popper - this was in the days before the microwave - and at most we'd add a little bit of salt to the finished, popped corn. And for years I believed that this was the way that I liked my popcorn to be. Poor misled fool. Perhaps six months go, I discovered that I do like a bit of butter in my popcorn.

Now buttered (microwave) popcorn is being linked to respiratory infections. It appears that a man ate microwave buttered popcorn twice a day for perhaps ten years, and often intentionally inhaled the steam that escaped when he opened the bag - this steam is high in heated diacetyl, which has long been linked to COPD in popcorn plant workers - lung disease. Apparently his home had diacetyl levels that rivaled those of microwave popcorn plants.

Timing is everything.

But the incident actually reminds me a bit of the current situation with products imported from China, because the link between diacetyl and lung disease is not new; OSHA has long been studying this phenomenon in popcorn plant workers, though they have yet to do anything about it. But now the problem has spilled over to the end user, so now it's a national crisis. The difficulties with Chinese imports started with tainted pet food, then moved to lead paint in toys, and I forget what else. And, China is taking steps to remedy the problem. But, according to an interview I heard on NPR earlier this week (and that I'll have to find a citation for - don't take my word for it until that cite's in place), China's quality control issue isn't new, either: they've been poisoning their own people for years. What's different here is that it is affecting the bottom line as a major importer of China-made articles is growing leary of them.

It's all about the dollar, or your local equivalent - your MU.

And I'm left wondering: does melamine counteract the effects of diacetyl?