Unions representing cooks and kitchen workers who may be exposed to dangerous levels of an artificial butter flavor are joining members of Congress to demand action to halt use of this lung-destroying chemical called diacetyl.
They also want to inform and protect the more than 2 million cooks across the country who could be using these products for hours every day.
Their comments came in response to an investigation by the Seattle P-I that documented that top-selling butter substitutes, when heated, release vapor from the diacetyl chemical additive. When inhaled, this vapor has been linked to a rare, sometimes fatal, respiratory disease called bronchiolitis obliterans.
A laboratory commissioned by the P-I analyzed 22 of the more popular products and estimated that the levels of the chemical released by the product could match or exceed the amount of diacetyl that sickened hundreds of workers at Midwest popcorn plants. For some who contracted bronchiolitis obliterans, their only chance of survival is a lung transplant.
Experts say significant on-site testing should be done by trained occupational medicine specialists, such as teams from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. They say risk from using these products is far greater to professional cooks who work long hours over the grill than to home cooks.
California Rep. George Miller said that if the P-I's analysis is correct, "they make it clear that diacetyl exposure could have a much farther reach than we previously thought."
"OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) must immediately stop dragging its feet and take urgent action to protect all workers whose lives could be at risk because of exposure to diacetyl," added Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
UNITE HERE, a 450,000- member union for the hospitality industry, said it is willing to work with restaurants, hotels and other businesses that employ cooks to improve awareness of the diacetyl problem.
"With over 2 million working cooks in our economy, only fast action by the food industry will prevent a continuing toll of severe lung disease among these essential workers," the New York-based international union said Friday in a statement.
The union said the evidence of serious chemical hazard from cooking products requires urgent action by the food industry,
"It is completely unacceptable that working cooks should have to put their lungs at risk just to complete a day's orders," the statement said.
The P-I received hundreds of calls and e-mails in response to its investigation, published Friday, including a number of concerned cooks or their families from around the nation.
Peter Rossman, an officer of IUF, an international trade union federation representing workers in the food, agriculture, hotel, restaurant and catering industries, e-mailed from his Geneva office noting that there is concern for cooks and kitchen workers throughout Europe.
"We've been trying to generate regulatory action in other parts of the world, and have also sounded the alarm on diacetyl," wrote Rossman.
Frances Schreiberg, a lawyer with Worksafe, a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting occupational safety and health, said the process to control diacetyl is taking too long.
"Government must issue a regulation, long overdue, to limit exposure and make sure there is medical surveillance so workers don't get sick and die from their jobs. Or just ban diacetyl altogether," she said.
California officials are investigating more than two dozen workers in flavoring plants believed sickened by diacetyl exposure. An effort to ban diacetyl use in the state was defeated by one vote in the California assembly, and it could be two years before the issue is raised again in Sacramento.
Schreiberg said existing laws and regulations don't go far enough.
"Government needs to go to workplaces with cooks using diacetyl to evaluate the level of the hazard, to determine if workers are not merely knowledgeable, but also being protected from the hazard," she said.
Many members of the House and Senate have tried over the past two years to get government health agencies to address the hazard of diacetyl.
"I am deeply concerned that we are not doing enough to protect workers and consumers from the serious health risks posed by exposure to diacetyl," wrote Murray, chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.
"We can't continue to allow Americans to risk exposure to this deadly chemical with no safety standard, no protection and little information from the federal agencies charged with protecting consumers and assuring a safe workplace."
That letter, and almost all diacetyl-related requests from Congress, have generated little action.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro has been fighting to get the FDA to re-evaluate the "safe" designation it allowed for diacetyl. And the risk to the nation's cooks has her worried, her staff says.
"Yet again, diacetyl testing results have demonstrated safety risks associated with the food flavoring -- this time for ... chefs and others involved with food preparation," she said Thursday.
"The FDA needs to act on this issue and employ its regulatory mandate to protect the public health."