Coffee roasters' health at risk from chemical compound, air samples suggest

From the article, it sounds like the news organization offered to pay for an industrial hygienist, associated with the local university, to conduct the study. The human interest side of the story discusses how the founders of one Roaster were interested in the well being of Mexican coffee farmers, which could imply that they would be interested in the well being of their own employees as well. This is further confirmed by that Roaster working with National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to prevent the high exposure levels found in the news agency study. Also, there were some papers published implying that the levels would be high, so if the news agency did their homework they could be chasing down a likely lead instead of just randomly looking to cause trouble. It sounds a lot like asbestosis, which is a horrible way to go; raising the public and industrial knowledge about a preventable cause is doing humane good.

At the end of the article, the "About This Project" section explains that "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Raquel Rutledge investigated the hazards of diacetyl and other chemicals used in the flavoring industry during a nine-month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism through the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. This is part of an ongoing series of stories." Part 1 is here: http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/gasping-for-action-32298865...

>Why, why would these commercial roasters allow a "news organization" to analyze the air?

It is sort of bizarre. Maybe they were naive, or thought it would be harmless. Or, maybe they were genuinely curious above what could be a potential health issue and said, "have at it". The validity of the test aside, the issue will now get attention (probably too much attention).

Maybe spend some time working with asbestos and see how your "life is a fatal disease" philosophy works out for you.

That's more the wiki editor's fault than anything else; the US section talks about both occupational safety and food safety, but the EU bit only about food safety. The EU does have exposure guidelines, which it is looking at reducing, though: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr1021.htm

Europe doesn't eat as much (butter flavoured-)popcorn so the risk might just be a little lower.

The article explains it's a product of fermentation, which is why it's also present in beer and wine.