Protecting the Health of California Workers: A Moral Obligation

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Legislation Being Held up by State Budget Hostage Taking

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Welcome to day fifty-oneof the state budget stand-off. More press conferences have been held, names have been called, and battles of rhetoric have been waged in the newspapers. Amongst all the press flurry, PCL last week participated in one particularly fiery press conference to keep the fire on the Senate Republicans who are continuing to hold the budget hostage. The gang of fourteen Senate Republicans to insist that the Legislature carves an “ostrich exemption” out of the California Environmental Quality Act to allow builders to overlook the potential global warming pollution that projects built over the next five years will generate.

Undoubtedly, the Big Five (the two Democratic leaders, the two Republican leaders and the Governor) have been meeting, maybe even over cigars. In fact, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who flew out of Sacramento to enjoy his vacation weeks ago, is back in the fray – and the press. And the Legislature is gearing up to re-convene next week after their pseudo-recess. Yet despite all of the hubbub, we still have no state budget.

In the absence of more juicy developments, we’ll continue to highlight bills that will likely need your help as they near the finish line over the next month. Both of these long overdue measures by Assemblymember Sally Lieber seek to clean up toxic substances in the workplace.

AB 514 (Lieber) - Pulling the Plug on “Popcorn Lung”

Hold on to your seats, folks, because we’re about to drop a bomb. That mm-mm delicious buttery flavor on your popcorn probably didn’t come from a cow. That’s right, what you thought was butter is actually the delightful aroma of diacetyl, normally a natural byproduct of fermentation (think of that butterscotch taste in your beer) which is now chemically manufactured as an artificial flavor.

Synthetic diacetyl has been found by the state and the California Department of Health Services to pose a significant health risk to factory workers exposed to the chemical during its manufacturing process. Diacytel enters the body through the inhalation of vapors, droplets of spray or dust in the air, or it can be absorbed through the skin. The first documented health case associated with diacytel exposure occurred in 2004, when a 32-year old Latino male who had been working for an artificial flavoring manufacturer developed a severe case of Bronchiolitis Obliterans (BO), an extremely rare and life threatening disease with symptoms that include dry coughs, severe wheezing and extreme shortness of breath. This particular case showed a 72% decrease in lung capacity and an inability of the patient to walk more than fifteen feet without feeling breathless.