Don't Breathe the Popcorn! ...and Don't Inhale the McNuggets.

On April 26, 2002 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) noted in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that eight workers had developed a "respiratory illness resembling bronchiolitis obliterans" after working for 8-9 years at the same popcorn factory in Missouri. This was a 5- to 11-fold increase over expected rates of respiratory problems in workers attributable to exposure to toxins in the work place. The air in the plant was tested for diacetyl, "a ketone with butter-flavor characteristics," and found to range from 18 ppm to 1.3 ppm in the parts of the plant where the affected patients had worked. (There are no guidelines as to safe levels.) Obviously, causation is difficult to establish with certainty. But wouldn't you think someone in the agency that recommended "half-face, non-powered respirators equipped with P-100 filters and organic vapor cartridges" to protect workers at that popcorn plant in 2002 might have thought to ask the question whether consumers should be warned not to breathe deeply as they pull apart the corners of the microwave popcorn bag to let the steam escape? How many ppm of diacetyl are in that steam? Anyone care to measure?

Thanks to David Michaels (The Pump Handle), the world now knows that Dr. Cecile Rose, the chief occupational and environmental medicine physician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, informed the FDA, CDC, EPA and OSHA--because they cannot, or will not, connect the dots themselves--that there might be a danger to consumers as well as workers.

Why is there diacetyl in Tumbledown's popcorn? Because there is no butter or salt in Tumbledown's house? No. Because diacetyl is required to preserve the popcorn in the waxed paper bag inside the plastic cover inside the cardboard box from spoiling before Tumbledown eats it? No. Given the modern wonders of the microwave oven, you could leave that popcorn in its husk on the cob for a very long time, a year and more, until you put it in a dish in the microwave. You could pop the corn right off that cob if you really wanted to--no additives, no preservatives. The diacetyl is simply there to fool Tumbledown into thinking that the popcorn is "buttery." It is there to provide the generic "butter-like" taste that makes the corn addictive. It is there to make the popcorn "More Buttery!" In other words, the diacetyl is there to legitimate the $31.60 price of a box of Pop Secret. (Pop Secret Popcorn, Jumbo Butter, 6-Count Packages, Pack of 8, corn for which the farmer may receive $3 per bushel.) Silly Tumbledown. He thought the diacetyl might have a legitimate function. So much for "value added."

The same could be said for the tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) and the dimethylpolysiloxene in Chicken McNuggets. (See Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which set off an internet furor over the comment that McNuggets contain "a form of butane.") Maybe these things will not kill you, at least not immediately or in such minuscule quantities, but do you really want them added to your food on purpose? (The ultimate purpose in these cases being to enhance the corporation's bottom line, not to enhance the health-improving qualities of the eater's meal [nor even to improve that dubious category known as value-added taste].) Of course McDonald's Inc. wouldn't poison us on purpose, but do you really want to assume that they've thoroughly tested the "health benefits" of all the chemicals they add? (You can't properly call them "ingredients" when they've never before been used for food in the history of humankind.) No. Of course McDonald's doesn't test every chemical independently. They depend on the FDA, CDC, EPA and OSHA for that. Is it labeled "nontoxic" and without a limit for exposure or consumption? Then it must be good enough to eat!

Yes, Tumbledown knows that every bite of tomato he ate this summer was loaded with "chemicals." Thankfully, they weren't chemicals that Tumbledown sprinkled on. There was no need to improve the taste of 'maters fresh from the vine. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my food au naturel. ...more or less.

Tumbledown Farm