Healthy Popcorn

diacetyl - sounds better than C4H6O2, I guess. There's been a suggestion by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that diacetyl, when used in artificial butter flavoring, may be hazardous if heated and inhaled over long periods of time.
That artificial butter flavoring is what's used in microwave popcorn, which we heat and then inhale its aroma.
With scouts around the country gearing up to sell microwave popcorn door-to-door, you can expect this concern to come up in your pack or troop. To prepare for that, the BSA has issued a Press Release letting folks know the Trails End popcorn is safe. That release says that the popcorn suppliers have "voluntarily started removing diacetyl from their products". Hmmm, 'started' removing it?
So, I checked the Trails' End web site and they have a big link on their home page that takes you to their press release. It says they have removed diacetyl so everyone can be happy now.

Whew! Now, I can inform the scouts that the popcorn they are selling is diacetyl-free. I don't suppose we can actually call it 'Healthy' though, can we? :-)

Scout On