OSHA Announces Actions for Worker Injury Prevention for Butter Flavorings

OSHA recently announced three new actions that address the growing concern of workers that are directly exposed to artificial butter flavoring. The actions are as follows:

· Initiating a rulemaking under section 6(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
· Issuing a Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB)
· Providing a Hazard Communication Guidance

These recent actions are in recent concerns regarding workers in the microwave popcorn butter flavoring plants. The chemical to blame is diacetyl.

Each action taken is an important step to notifying employers and workers of the dangers associated with this chemical. The communication guideline helps establish MSDS sheets, and to be in compliance with OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard.

For more information on this and other new topics of interest in the safety world visit http://www.osha.gov/.