Lung Destroying Disease Reaches UK

Risks 1st March 2008 reported that a union organisation has repeated its call for global action on a lung-destroying occupational disease which has affected hundreds in the USA, after it was revealed the first case had been identified in the UK.

Global foodworkers' union federation IUF said regulatory action and medical surveillance of food workers exposed to the flavouring ingredient diacetyl, the cause of bronchiolitis obliterans, have so far elicited no response by health and safety agencies in Europe. A

new report prepared by UK trade union journal Hazards in close cooperation with the IUF confirms that there is no room for complacency. In 2003, Martin Muir took a job at the Yorkshire factory of the transnational flavouring company Firmenich. Today, aged 38, the father of four has the lungs of an 80-year-old man. His symptoms were only spotted thanks to an alert and informed specialist aware of the US situation. The symptoms of bronchiolitis obliterans are typically misdiagnosed as asthma or other lung ailments, letting the companies and the governments off the hook.'

IUF added: 'The Muir case suggests that we should be speaking of 'food flavouring lung' rather than 'popcorn lung'. An official US government agency has confirmed even low exposures to diacetyl can cause the disease.