DEP Press Advisory on Deer Hunting Cancellation, October 2, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Artificial Butter Suspected in Lung Disease By PHILIP J. HILTS er at a Nebraska company, declined ly started working at the factory, she Workers in two states have come to identify that company. But the developed a persistent cough. She did down with a severe lung disease that government has begun to work with not think anything ofifit at fira. “It is apparently linked to their work the Nebraska company to investl- was kind of like a cold dr a.flij-type with vats of artificial butter flavor­ gate the case, and investigators said thing,” she said in an Interview, “I’d ing, doctors have reported. the worker contracted the disease get to feeling better after the doctors The National Institute for Occupa­ after working with vats of a different gave me something for the &ugh. tional Safety and Health issued a brand of butter flavoring from the but it gradually kept getting worse report in August that described the one used in Missouri. and worse. I thought I was going to cases of nine workers in a small In Missouri, 16 current and former get over it, but I didn’t.” 1 Missouri factory who developed a employees have filed a workers’ Breathing became more difficult rare and disabling lung disorder, compensation claim against the Gil- and she started coughing so''hard bronchiolitis obliterans, and an addi­ ster-Mary Lee Corporation, and a that she broke a rib. She consulted tional seven workers who had other class-action lawsuit against Interna­ doctors in Carthage, Joplin, Spring­ lung problems after being exposed to tional Flavors and Fragrances, field and St. Louis, and soon was so artificial flavoring while mixing and based in New York and New Jersey, weak and short of breath that her which makes the flavoring. Seven doctors advised her to quit working. packaging microwave popcorn. plaintiffs are still employed at the The lung damage from bronchioli­ So in June 1994, she did. ; Gilster-Mary Lee factory, though In October 1994, Mrs. Nally went to tis obliterans appears to be perma­ some are on disability leave. nent, and four of the workers are so a hospital in Denver for a lung biop­ The plaintiffs are seeking an unde­ sy. Her lungs were so inflamed and ill that they are on the waiting list for fined amount in damages to cover lung transplants. damaged that doctors warned she medical costs. might have only a year to live, and Today, in a telephone interview, a doctor in Nebraska described a simi­ she was put on a waiting list for a lar case of the lung disorder in an­ double-lung transplant. other patient, who is also a worker Her condition has now stabilized, handling artificial butter flavoring Workers exposed to and she said she has been moved to for popcorn. the “inactive” waiting list. Mrs. Nal­ Doctors who investigated for the high concentrations ly said she suspected her illness was federal agency said that'the problem linked to her job because she had appeared to be limited to workers of a flavoring got a been active and healthy before start- who inhaled large‘amounts of the ing at the^lanU-and-shesoon noticed liquid flavoring and that there was severe ailment. that other workers shared her symp­ no danger to anyone eating the fla­ toms. But no one in the company or voring on popcorn or in other foods. on the production line ever talked Dr. Talmadge E. King, chief of about it, she said. “Some of these people can’t even The investigation of the outbreak medicine at the San Francisco Gen­ help out with household chores like eral Hospital and an expert on bron­ began more than a year ago when a mowing the lawn because they’re so doctor in Kansas City, Mo., Allen chiolitis obliterans, said these cases out of breath, and things like playing were the first time he had heard of Parmet, who handles occupational with their kids are hard for them,” health problems, noticed that several an outbreak of the disease, which said Amy Powell, a lawyer with usually occurs in individual patients. patients had the rare, disabling lung Humphrey, Farrington, McClain & problem. Late last year, he saw six He said it sometime occurred in Edgar, a firm in Independence, Mo., transplant patients whose immune patients at the same time with the that is representing the plaintiffs. disorder, all from one small area of systems are compromised and his­ Gilster-Mary Lee has denied li­ torically has been seen in people who Missouri. That was four more than had heavy exposure to chemicals in ability and until recently also denied he had seen in his entire career. accidents like the explosion of chlo­ benefits, Ms. Powell said. She said He reported the cases to the Mis­ rine tanks, or when farmers have International Flavors and Fra­ souri Department of Health, where opened corn silos and inhaled large grances had not yet responded to the an investigation was begun. amounts of nitrogen oxides at once. class-action lawsuit filing Dr. Eduardo Simoes, the state epi­ Dr. Kathleen Kreiss, who led the Calls to Gilster-Mary Lee and to demiologist for Missouri, said his investigation, said that the finding International Flavors and Fra- group calculated that the odds of was a surprise and that two impor­ grances were not returned. having that number of cases in a tant questions are now being pursued The workers in Missouri were town as small as Jasper were less by government scientists: are there young, averaging 36 years old, and • than one in 10,000. Federal investiga- cases that have not been reported, that “is part of the reason this is so tors were asked to aid the investiga­ and what ingredient in the flavoring alarming,” Ms. Powell said. tion in August 2000. may have triggered the disease? One of the Glister workers was The investigators have done a test The cases were first reported in Angela Nally, 48, who began working on rats, and have found that when The Wall Street Journal on Wednes­ on the production line in October they inhale substantial amounts of day. 1993. Until then, she had been a butter flavoring like that used in the The illnesses occurred in workers homemaker, and she decided to take Missouri plant, many develop simi­ at a Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation her first job outside the home only lar lung disease. plant in Jasper, Mo., where micro­ because her husband had lost his. The chief ingredient in the flavor­ wave popcorn was mixed with salt, Mrs. Nally drove 11 miles from her ing is a chemical called diacetyl, said oil and flavoring, then packaged. home in Carthage to the factory on Dr. Greg Kullman of the federal Government investigators and the the outskirts of Jasper. She worked agency, and it may be the agent that doctor in Nebraska, Dr. Susanna Von the late shift, from midafternoon un­ triggers the problem. Tests of the I Essen at the University of Nebraska til midnight, making $5.50 an hour. effects of diacetyl on rodents have I Medical Center, who treated a work- About four months after Mrs. Nal- begun. Dr. Kullman said.

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