Popcorn Workers Lung

September 26, 2007

Workers should never have to choose between their health and feeding their families.

To the question of whether this bill is premature, I would argue that it's not premature for the 500 workers in Ohio and those across this country who are now suffering from this irreversible disease.

I have heard the workers' stories from the Ohio popcorn plants. I have heard the story of a worker who worked 12-hour shifts in the popcorn factory outside of Marion, Ohio. His job was to mix the flavors, measuring and dumping the butter-flavored powders and pastes into the vats of soy bean oil. Now he is so crippled from breathing the vapors in the plant, that he hardly has the strength to hold his granddaughter. He is racked with spasms that leave him dizzy and incapacitated.

In 2001, after an outbreak of diseases at the popcorn factories in Missouri, his employer guaranteed him that his plant was safe.

Mr. Speaker, OSHA's failure to protect our workers by ignoring the reports, studies, warning signs, has endangered the health of families. That is why we must act today. Our workers should never have to choose between their health and feeding their families.