Popcorn Causes Lung Disease!

[mr_pikachu]

Doctor warns consumers of popcorn fumes

Okay, so the conclusions made based on this case study haven't been confirmed. But still, this isn't a good sign for those of us who enjoy a bucket of popcorn during a good (or bad) film.

Should we think twice before indulging in our favorite movie snacks? Is this an isolated incident that might incite overreactions? And will this thread turn into as vicious of a war as our political debates? What do you think?

*grabs popcorn*

*hesitates*

[Chris 2.1]

Isn't this another one of those 'announcements' like 'Eating 5-a-day prevents cancer' or 'everything causes cancer' that people always say? I'm always skeptical about these. If it was really lethal they'd remove it from shelves.

[Drusilla]

You know, what I find worrisome is that people are taking the time to research this. Who in the hell first thought of the idea of, "Hey, let's see if popcorn fumes cause lung disease!"

As for worrying about our snackish indulgences, people need to be eating better anyway. I personally tend to avoid getting anything to eat at the movies, and at home I'm just as content, if not more, eating a few pieces of fresh fruit as I am eating a bag of popcorn.

[Gavin Luper]

A pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to say doctors there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.

Several times a day for years? Um, surely you could expect some adverse health effects there? Admittedly, lung cancer not being the glaring one, but still ...*

Surely the more obvious health risk from popcorn is eating the blackened kernels that don't pop? Apparently they're packed with carcinogens (ie. cancer causing things). Yum.

Personally, I think many things have the potential to harm us. The whole "everything in moderation" seems to work well. For food, at least. Not so much for asbestos.

(*Unless the guy worked at the cinema, giving other people's popcorn to them. Interesting ...)

[Drusilla]

Several times a day for years? Um, surely you could expect some adverse health effects there? Admittedly, lung cancer not being the glaring one, but still ...*

Behavior like this just worries me... I see it all too often, though. Ick.

Surely the more obvious health risk from popcorn is eating the blackened kernels that don't pop? Apparently they're packed with carcinogens (ie. cancer causing things). Yum.

I never knew that... huh. Love those carcinogens, eh?

Personally, I think many things have the potential to harm us. The whole "everything in moderation" seems to work well. For food, at least. Not so much for asbestos.

This just made me laugh. Hehe.

(*Unless the guy worked at the cinema, giving other people's popcorn to them. Interesting ...)

I found it interesting that the article only addressed microwave popcorn. Is this flavoring chemical not used in theatre popcorn? I personally prefer microwave popcorn, when I actually do eat popcorn at all... Hmmm... Maybe I'm just an American and I like things that are bad for me. O_o

[Phoenixsong]

Psssh. Everything gives you cancer. Popcorn gives you cancer. Sunlight gives you cancer. Tea gives you cancer. Breathing gives you cancer. As long as it's something short of skinny dipping in radioactive waste, I've stopped caring.

Also, that man needs to get a life. Or a dietician. Forget cancer/lung disease; why the hell is he eating several bags of popcorn a day? o.O He needs some friends, and then they need to help him get laid. That's Dr. Phoenix's prescription.

[Asilynne]

Psssh. Everything gives you cancer. Popcorn gives you cancer. Sunlight gives you cancer. Tea gives you cancer. Breathing gives you cancer. As long as it's something short of skinny dipping in radioactive waste, I've stopped caring.

Also, that man needs to get a life. Or a dietician. Forget cancer/lung disease; why the hell is he eating several bags of popcorn a day? o.O He needs some friends, and then they need to help him get laid. That's Dr. Phoenix's prescription.

I <3 you like a sister XD Couldnt have said it better myself :>

[Houndoom_Lover]

Who the hell burns popcorn and inhales the fumes anyway XD?!

[Mewtwo-D2]

Who eats burned popcorn in the first place? If I accidentally burn my popcorn, it gets thrown into the garden. The dog won't even eat burned popcorn.

This is probably just like that study that "proved" eating bread caused cancer. Basically, they took a bunch of rats and fed them nothing but bread until one got cancer. There! Proof!

[pokemasterfrank]

Actually, as long as you don't top popcorn with butter or anything, it's a good source of fiber and is actually pretty healthy for you.

@Mewtwo-D2 - I actually like the taste of burnt popcorn. Given, I'm weird. I suppose I should probably stop because it is filled with carcinogens and cancery goodness.

[Magmar]

Umm..........

this person was probably about the size of ten of me.
all that greasy popcorn. EWW. if i'm gonna eat something fattening, bring on the ice cream!! and even then it's nonfat frozen yogurt o_o;; god i eat healthy XD

[AdventureSerum]

This may be a little off topic, but you know what's interesting about popcorn? That popcorn powder they give you at the theater and there's all different flavors like cheese and caramel and butter and sour cream & onion. If you're feeling cRaAaAaZy, you can put ALL of them on! Even caramel and cheese together! It's zany!

[Drusilla]

This may be a little off topic, but you know what's interesting about popcorn? That popcorn powder they give you at the theater and there's all different flavors like cheese and caramel and butter and sour cream & onion. If you're feeling cRaAaAaZy, you can put ALL of them on! Even caramel and cheese together! It's zany!

That's more than just a little off topic... <_<;;

Anyway, I don't think that burning popcorn has anything to do with it. This chemical is probably released with the steam and heat from the popping kernels. *shrugs* Just a guess, since they didn't really go into the chemical properties of diacetyl...

[Roy Karrde]

You know I wanted to get Popcorn for the debate tonight but even I hesitated becuase of this. I really think some one would have to be snorting Popcorn fumes for years for this to happen, but I do wonder what other fumes can cause Lung Disease. Maybe Campbell's Soup Steam!

[Drusilla]

You know I wanted to get Popcorn for the debate tonight but even I hesitated becuase of this. I really think some one would have to be snorting Popcorn fumes for years for this to happen, but I do wonder what other fumes can cause Lung Disease. Maybe Campbell's Soup Steam!

That would majorly suck... Can you imagine all the childhood dreams that would be crushed?

Anyway, live and let live, or live and let die (great song), et al. I haven't dropped dead from eating popcorn yet, and I doubt that I ever will. So many things are "dangerous" these days, if we let it hold us back we'd go around in big plastic bubbles (kinda like those hamster balls... hmmm) and refuse to interact with our environs. I'm going to go about my business, and if I die, oh well. It's gonna happen sooner or later (though probably sooner... <_<;; )

But I have no problem with hamster balls, as long as I don't have to live in one.

[Gavin Luper]

Anyway, live and let live, or live and let die (great song), et al. I haven't dropped dead from eating popcorn yet, and I doubt that I ever will. So many things are "dangerous" these days, if we let it hold us back we'd go around in big plastic bubbles (kinda like those hamster balls... hmmm) and refuse to interact with our environs. I'm going to go about my business, and if I die, oh well. It's gonna happen sooner or later (though probably sooner... <_<;; )

But I have no problem with hamster balls, as long as I don't have to live in one.

Yeah, I kind of agree. I mean, I'm not keen on dying, and I don't intend to be reckless, but I'd rather take my chances living a normal life than live in a bubble fearing all these things which might kill me. A hundred years ago I imagine people did a lot of things which are dangerous/deadly now, yet at least they didn't have to worry about quite so much, because nobody knew. I'm not saying life was better back then, but you get my point. Once you "know" something is bad for you, it compels change automatically, doesn't it? That knowledge can be very powerful.

[mr_pikachu]

Well, you probably can't live in fear of everything, yeah. Breathing has its risks when you get right down to it. That doesn't mean we should stop.

If you're looking for trends among studies of potential health risks (and whether or not they're actually valid), you may be interested in this article...

Early rising no good for the heart: study

All these years of waking in the evening... I'm finally vindicated! Go me!

[Houndoom_Lover]

OH MY GOD! It was on channel One, where we have to watch all the time at the start of school. We made fun of it the whole day. Miming opening opening popcorn and inhaling deeply.

[Jim Crill]

Well, you probably can't live in fear of everything, yeah. Breathing has its risks when you get right down to it. That doesn't mean we should stop.

If you're looking for trends among studies of potential health risks (and whether or not they're actually valid), you may be interested in this article...

Early rising no good for the heart: study

All these years of waking in the evening... I'm finally vindicated! Go me!

WTF?!! Yikes, that creeps me out seeing as how I am an early riser (I'm 16). How the hell can getting the recommended 9 hours of sleep hurt you? That seems silly, especially when they said that most of the early risers were OLDER people, I mean doesn't that make more sense then jumping the gun and saying "Hey since a bunch of 60 year olds have heart disease and wake up early, the cause must be the early rising! Never mind the fact that they're old!". I mean honestly, that's just bad science.

[Houndoom_Lover]

Well, let's just say. Everything causes disease- by default. The things that don't should be mentioned! ^_^....can't think of anything.

[Drusilla]

Well, you probably can't live in fear of everything, yeah. Breathing has its risks when you get right down to it. That doesn't mean we should stop.

I dunno, I know a few people who should try not breathing... XP

Breathing causes disease. Trust me; you live in the Houston area for long enough, this becomes a matter of daily life... Ugh. I hate the smell of the chemical refineries... Even though I work for a company that owns one of the really big ones (one that HASN'T blown up yet...).

So, yeah. Life causes disease. Life is lethal, and pretty much always leads to [physical] death... I think that's something we can all agree on.

[Crystalmaster Mike]

About the second article:

However, the study also noted that early risers were usually older.

It's these kind of sentences that I usually nit-pick on in these kind of "researches". It's all just a kind of "I could've told you that" to me, really. Hey, I also saw somewhere that food eaten at night makes you fatter. Does that mean that getting up at night to eat something when you're half-starving is bad for you? Of course not! Just as long as you know when to stop. Thus:

opening popcorn and inhaling deeply

is probably one of the things the man could have been doing every day which helped trigger the lung cancer. Besides the obvious fact he ate the darn snack every few hours every day. Seriously, anyone doing that probably was weird in other ways too.

Luckily, I'm more for eating potato chips during theater movie performances anywho. Go me! (At least, until they "prove" eating potatoes or chips causes greater risk of loss of hair at age 21 or anything.)

[Gavin Luper]

Life is lethal, and pretty much always leads to [physical] death... I think that's something we can all agree on.

Life always leads to death. It's all part of the package. Yes, I agree. Hoorah.

[Magmar]

OH MY GOD! It was on channel One, where we have to watch all the time at the start of school. We made fun of it the whole day. Miming opening opening popcorn and inhaling deeply.

Channel One is bullshit. In my year we protested them putting Channel One in the school and they got rid of it, along with all the toilet advertising, propaganda, and free TV's.

[Toxicity]

Mentioning the name Channel One gives me the chills of my middle school-freshman year of high school days. Madness. Pure, unadulterated madness.

But more relative, there isn't much of a proof to what exactly happened. Several bags a day just sounds sickening, but usually, you're going to fumes mainly if the popcorn he opened/ate was significantly burnt.

And I also don't know what doesn't kill somebody in one way or another. It's kind of a live long in fear versus live short in pleasure issue once again, and this time concerning something that the majority of people don't turn down. Now I wonder what the alternative will become, given that popcorn does end up abandoned.

[Houndoom_Lover]

^-^ Channel One is crap, they tell you nothing and have people with strange un-understand voices.

*pretends to open a bag and inhales deeply* I'll take pleasure to safety as food goes. I'm not allergic it anything...minus Eggowaffuls from the 90s, but let's not get into that.

Remember when they said eggs were bad for us? Bull! So, I plan to ignore anything...as long as they don't get rid of the butter flavor on the popcorn 0.0 *horror*

[Arnen]

:/ So the guy's lungs give out because he weighs four hundred pounds from eating so much greasy popcorn all day, and they jump to the conclusion that the popcorn causes the problem. Big deal. It's not going to stop me enjoying popcorn every so often. Besides, my parents started growing popcorn this year, so no more microwaved 'corn for me. :B

Coincidentally, does anyone know if water causes cancer now? Because it seems like only a matter of time before some scientist gives a bunch of rats nothing but water, waits for a few to develop cancer, and alerts the press about it.

[Houndoom_Lover]

XD No, but too much water causes brain swelling...Speaking of cancer and Channel One.

Two days ago, Channel One annouced 'Dropouts are shown to develope more cancer'

And that was it!! I was like WTF?! o.O That's not scientific!!! Science based stories should have pecentage, cause, reason, and effect! That was the most BS I've ever heard in my entire life.