Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA 2002-0408-2915: Agrilink Foods Popcorn Plant, Ridgway, Illinois

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boylstein, Randy J. ; Choe, Kyoo T. ; Sahakian, Nancy ; Schleiff, Patricia L.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In September 2002, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a request for a health hazard evaluation (HHE) from employees at Agrilink Foods Popcorn Plant, Ridgway, Illinois. The respiratory health concerns cited in the request included cough, shortness of breath, and chest pain
  
  and exposure concerns included butter flavorings, coloring agents, and salt. We conducted a walk-through survey October 22-23, 2002, and an industrial hygiene survey November 5- 6, 2002. Average area diacetyl air levels in the mixing tank area, microwave popcorn packaging line, and quality control room were 0.60, 0.33, and 0.19 parts per million parts air by volume, respectively. Average personal diacetyl air levels for the mixer, microwave popcorn packaging line machine operator, and quality control workers were 0.37, 0.64, and 0.06 parts per million parts air by volume, respectively. On November 19-21, 2002, 35 current workers (73%) participated in health questionnaire interviews and spirometry and lung diffusing capacity testing. Comparisons to national data were performed which controlled for race, age group, and smoking status. These comparisons demonstrated that plant employees aged 17 to 39 had about a 3 times greater rate of chronic cough, and plant employees aged 40 to 69 who had never smoked had about a 2 times greater rate of shortness of breath. We supplemented our 35 spirometry test results with company results for individuals who did not volunteer in our study and used spirometry tests for 41 workers for our analysis. Plant employees overall and plant employees aged 40 to 69 had about a 2 times greater rate of airways obstruction, compared to national rates. Despite the small number of workers in this study, we were able to demonstrate statistical significance for the elevated airways obstruction rate in workers aged 40 to 69. None of the tested workers with obstruction demonstrated reversibility with the administration of bronchodilator. The survey findings are best explained by work-related bronchiolitis obliterans due to exposures arising from the open configuration of the mixing tanks which allowed volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to be disseminated to other areas of the plant, as well as due to the quality control process where many bags of microwave popcorn were popped in a small room with minimal general dilution ventilation.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Diacetyl Flavoring Agents Food-Processing Industry Food Additives Lung Occupational Health Quality Control Respiratory Function Tests Respiratory System Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Ventilation

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• Keywords:
  Airway-obstruction Artificial Butter Flavorings Bronchiolitis Obliterans Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Fixed Obstructive Airways Disease Flavorings Food-additives Food-processing-industry Food-processing-workers Food Preparations, Not Elsewhere Classified Foodstuff Hazard-Confirmed Microwave Popcorn Organic-compounds OSHA Region 5 Popcorn Pulmonary-function-tests Pulmonary-system-disorders Quality-control Respiratory-system-disorders Spirometry

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA200204082915
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies ; DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  63 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Rooney, Terry
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20023762
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2004-101208
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 2002-0408-2915, 2003 Oct ; :1-54
• CAS Registry Number:
  Diacetyl (CAS RN 431-03-8)
• Editor(s):
  Arthur, Penny
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2004
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  2099 - Food preparations, not elsewhere classified - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6d4dc60e71f408706ab5ce4dc8445d640aa6d7ace52939d35d8c89a6c15e2fde6783ce322f532a41aff15de48cfaeafec8e781ae8f03940e7963798b333dee36
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/170834/cdc_170834_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.75 MB ]