Yep, popcorn can kill. But not all popcorn kills, just the microwave popcorn made in the factories. The working conditions and Chemical additives used to make the flavorings for microwave popcorn can really hurt workers.  Both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5116a2.htm and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) http://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib092107.html have recognized that factory workers working in microwave popcorn factories in different parts of the country have developed a rare and severe life-threatening lung disease, "bronchiolitis obliterans", which can scar very small airways in the lung.  Many employees have needed lung transplants as a result of their exposure and some have died before they were able to get a transplant.  the heated mix of salt, butter flavorings, which are made up of many chemical additives can create a fog in the factory which in the absence of adequate ventilation or functioning respirators causes severe exposure to the workers. A butter-flavoring chemical called diacetyl is believed to be the substance that helps creates the fog.

It is a shame that a situation like this one, that can be taken care of by the employer just by providing basic ventilation, is allowed to go on for such a period of time that the employee's health deteriorates to the point that the employee needs a lung transplant.  Various companies within the chemical industry knew  for years that diacetyl was highly toxic to rats before such data became public. http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/2004/Microwave-Popcorn-Toxic28feb04.htm A BASF study done in 1993 found that some rats that breathed diacetyl vapors for as little as four hours were gasping for air and gagging.  Half of those rats in the study died within 24 hours.

 But microwave popcorn does not just hurt workers, it can also hurt you.  The microwave popcorn you eat may give you cancer.  Microwave popcorn is packed in bags which are treated with certain chemicals to stop the bag from becoming soggy.  When the popcorn is heated in the microwave oven the chemicals breakdown into a substance called "perfluorooctanoic"(PFOA) which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined to be a likely carcinogen. http://www.progressiveu.org/190000-microwave-popcorn-causes-cancer

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that some PFOA actually gets into the popcorn.  Last year a pulmonary specialist conducting research at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center contacted federal agencies to share their findings that consumer developed lung disease from the exposure to the fumes of micro-waving popcorn several times a day over a period of years. "We cannot be sure that this patient's exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease, ... However, we have no other plausible explanation." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295761,00.html

When I think of environmental damage I typically think of logging, dirty air, or oil spills.  But know I also think of microwave popcorn.  It is very ironic that the smell of butter that I loved on my microwave popcorn, fake that it was, make me think now of lung disease, cancer and death.