Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Struggling for air: Flavoring chemical tied to severe lung disease remains unregulated"

          A lean and fit 35-year-old Milwaukee man had been working at a local flavoring plant for just six months when he collapsed while playing basketball with his buddies. He felt like he was hyperventilating. He couldn't figure it out. He always played basketball. Then he noticed his sweat: It was bright orange. Around the same time in 2004, he began to cough and wheeze and noticed a regular shortness of breath.
          When he told his employer that he thought his symptoms might be linked to his 12-hour days bagging the powders that make some cheeses orange and give popcorn and other foods their butter flavor, his boss told him that there wasn't anything he could do about it. Today - 2 1/2 years later - the man, who didn't want his name or his company's name published for fear he would be fired, has grocery bags full of prescription medications and a garbage bag packed with documents detailing his many doctor visits and dealings with his employer. "I would give back every dime I ever made... to get my lungs back," he said.
          Doctors and scientists say the suspected culprit is a flavoring chemical called diacetyl, which is found naturally in low concentrations in many foods such as butter, but is artificially produced in plants across the country. Cheese factories, bakeries and candy and snack makers often use it, as well as many of the nation's food manufacturing giants. In 2001, diacetyl was linked to a severe lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans in workers at a microwave popcorn plant in Missouri. It has been tied to three deaths and serious illness in at least 200 people. The Food and Drug Administration began a study this fall on whether it poses a danger to consumers. Yet diacetyl remains unregulated by the government and under the radar of doctors.

Lieff Cabraser is at the forefront of litigation on behalf of food industry workers to prevent diacetyl butter flavoring and other food product side-effect injuries.