illness from buttery aroma of popcorn?

What a hoot.

This guy ate too much popcorn, and now has popcorn lung--which is apparently serious.

Watson's lungs have been damaged by the flavour chemical diacetyl in the artificial butter flavour, something that previously only damaged popcorn factory workers who mixed large vats of popcorn.

Hundreds of workers have said they have lung disease from working in these conditions and have launched lawsuits against companies that produce or use the butter flavouring.

Instead of taking on popcorn makers like the workers have done, Watson is suing the store that sold him his daily fix. Watson's lawyer, Kenneth McClain, said the lawsuit filed in a US district court names The Kroger Company, grocery store King Soopers' parent company Dillon Companies Inc, and food distributor Inter-American Products Inc.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, states that the companies "failed to warn that preparing microwave popcorn in a microwave oven as intended and smelling the buttery aroma could expose the consumer to an inhalation hazard and a risk of lung injury".

Diacetyl is a naturally occurring chemical compound that gives butter its flavour. It has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

After workers became ill, new workplace standards were developed that isolated microwaves from workers testing popcorn bags coming off the manufacturing line.

Last month, the United States' four biggest makers of microwave popcorn announced they were reformulating their recipes to remove the chemical from nearly all their products.