If you've gotten over Restless Leg Syndrome, you can now concentrate on worrying about "popcorn lung," the name given to breathing difficulties thought to be caused by exposure to the fumes from the agent giving microwave popcorn its buttery flavor:
David Michaels, of the George Washington University School of Public Health, who first published Rose's letter on his blog, The Pump Handle, said the finding is another reason for federal regulators to crack down on diacetyl exposure by workers and consumers.
"This letter is a red flag, suggesting that exposure to food flavor chemicals is not just killing workers, but may also be causing disease in people exposed to food flavor chemicals in their kitchens," Michaels wrote on his public health policy blog.
Federal agencies are promising a thorough look at this, so expect a warning label on microwave popcorn any day now, though the only consumer that may have been affected ate several bags of extra-butter-flavored popcorn a day for several years. Regulators have become the boy who cried wolf. The more remotely possible dangers they alert us to in the strongest possible language, the less we pay attention.
