Diacetyl and other flavorings in Food Production Industries

食品生产行业的职业暴露与呼吸道疾病有关，包括闭塞性细支气管炎（BO），这是一种罕见的肺部疾病，其特征是固定气道阻塞。综述了常见的香料成分中双乙酰的成分，并将其作为潜在的致病因素。双乙酰是天然黄油的一种成分，尽管比例很小。它被用来给食物添加黄油味，但也被用来制造许多其他口味，包括但不限于草莓味、焦糖味、榛子味和奶油糖味。2007年，美国食品和商业工人联合会提名国家毒品局对双乙酰进行长期吸入试验，因为工人可能通过吸入接触到双乙酰。除了评估二乙酰的吸入危害外，还需要描述全行业工人暴露的特征。NIOSH已经确定了暴露于双乙酰的工人的关键研究需求，包括测量食品生产行业工作场所对双乙酰的吸入。据报道，奶酪生产（威斯康星州）、酸奶（俄亥俄州）和薯片生产都出现了呼吸问题。然而，在调味食品生产行业中，暴露和疾病的可能性仍然在很大程度上没有得到研究。在同意参与2009财年的五家公司中完成了实地考察和风险评估调查。招聘仍在继续，另有9家公司同意参与。其中七家公司进行了实地调查，其中四家公司进行了风险评估调查。本财政年度计划对总共10个参与设施再进行一次接触评估调查。其中包括两家小型乳制品公司、三家巧克力制造商、两家薯片制造商、一家谷物制造商、一家面包店和一家香料制造商。收集数据的评估正在进行中，报告应在2011财年完成，并将结果发送给每个参与公司。初步结果表明，在所访问的地点，双乙酰几乎检测不到。调查中的大多数场所都是中小型的，使用少量的调味剂，或者根本不使用调味剂，而是生产或使用含有天然双乙酰的产品。只有在分析实验室收集并报告所有数据后，才能开始对结果进行详细分析。一家公司正在安装工程控制装置，并表示有兴趣进行后续的暴露评估，以评估工程控制装置的有效性。如果可行，这项后续调查可能安排在2011财年进行。

Occupational exposures in the food production industry have been associated with respiratory disease, including bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), an uncommon lung disease characterized by fixed airways obstruction. A review of common ingredients listed diacetyl among other flavorings and recent attention currently has been focused on diacetyl as the potential cause. Diacetyl is a component of natural butter, albeit a very small proportion. It is used to impart a butter flavor to food items, but is also used to create a number of other flavors including but not limited to strawberry, caramel, hazelnut and butterscotch. In 2007, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union nominated diacetyl for long-term inhalation testing by the NTP because of potential worker exposure via inhaltion. In addition to assessing the inhalation hazard from diacetyl, there is a need to characterize industry-wide worker exposures. NIOSH has identified critical research needs for workers exposed to diacetyl, including the measurement of workplace inhalation to diacetyl in food production industries. Respiratory issues have been annecdotally reported for cheese production (Wisconsin), yogurt (Ohio), and potato chip manufacturing. However, the potential for both exposure and disease in the flavored food production industry still remains largely unstudied. Walk through and exposure assessment surveys were completed at the five companies that agreed to participate in FY2009. Recruitment has continued with nine more companies agreeing to participate. Walk through surveys have been conducted at seven of the companies, with exposure assessment surveys being conducted at four of these. One additional exposure assessment survey is scheduled this fiscal year for a total of 10 participating facilities. These included two small scale dairies, three chocolate manufacturers, two potato chip manufacturers, one cereal manufacturer, one bakery and one flavor manufacturer. Evaluation of the collected data is ongoing and reports should be completed by FY11 to send to each participating company with their results. Preliminary results indicate that diacetyl is mostly non-detectable at the sites visited. Most of the sites in the survey were small to medium size, used small amounts of flavorings, or used no flavorings at all but produced or used products with naturally occurring diacetyl. Detailed analysis of the results will only begin after all the data has been collected and reported by the analytical laboratory. One company is installing engineering controls and expressed interest in a follow-up exposure assessment to evaluate the effectiveness of the engineering controls. If feasible, this follow-up survey may be scheduled in FY11.