Wednesday, September 05, 2007

"I am popcorn."

A doctor recently diagnosed the world's first public case of popcorn lung, a severe respiratory diseased caused by inhaling a chemical called diacetyl used in butter flavoring. From the article:

"So I turned to him and apologised and said, 'This is a really weird
question. But are you around a lot of popcorn?' His jaw dropped, and he said,
'How did you know to ask me that? I am popcorn.' He described himself as a
two-pack-a-day user. Sometimes more."


Popcorn Lung had previously been observed only in popcorn factory workers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa. Is that like two bags or two boxes? How many in the box? Are they the regular size? I have so many unanswered questions about is "Two-Packs-A-Day User" self proclaimation! I guess either way...that's a heck of a lot of popcorn every day!

Stacey said...

Haha, I just don't know what to say to this.

eileen said...

Apparently the disease isn't from eating the popcorn, but from inhaling. Apparently the guy loves the smell of popcorn so much he would take a big whiff from the bag when it came out of the microwave. I'm thinking he was a 2 bags a day guy, not 2 boxes. Who knows, though?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I gathered it was from inhaling...I just really paid attention to the "two-packs-a-day user" part. I know...I'm a dork. Here's a guy who has a disease and I fixate on the small detail that is really pretty irrelevant! :)

Rob said...

When I was in England I experimented with kettle corn a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale.

eileen said...

good one, rob!