City of Seattle may ban microwave popcorn

The Justice Center has been evacuated eight times in three years, forcing the evacuation of more than 400 people. If the problem continues, it will result in a ban of all microwave popcorn. How has it happened so many times?

By ROBERT MAK

SEATTLE – At Seattle City Hall there are rules.

No weapons, no animals, no loitering, no alcohol, no lying down, no smoking, no music, no fighting, no trespassing.

Could the next thing be no microwave popcorn?

"It can be a significant problem in the future," says Seattle Facilities Director Pedro Vasquez.

The City Facilities Department has just issued a memo to all City employees.

"I really don't know, I can't answer that question for you," says Yolande Williams, City Court Administrator.

The biggest offenders are at the Justice Center, but overheated popcorn has also forced evacuations at the Municipal Tower.

Popcorn is not the easiest thing to cook. Who knows if it's really two, two-and-a-half or three minutes? An unsupervised bag can destroy productivity for all your co-workers.

But just the mention of a possible ban at city offices gets a number of responses.

"Perhaps what would happen is there'd be an underground market for microwave popcorn, people would sneak the microwaves into their offices, they'd do illicit popping," says Frank Video, a staff member for the Seattle City Council.

Is it possible that if popcorn is outlawed, only the outlaws will have popcorn?

"You know, it's not something that we have talked about in that much detail yet," says Vasquez.

A spokesman for Mayor Greg Nickels says the Mayor does not eat popcorn.

The City just wants employees to follow this simple rule: Listen to the pop to know when to stop.

The Facilities director admits even his wife has burned a bag or two.

"She hit the popcorn button that had an automatic time associated with it and the popcorn still burned," says Vasquez, who says even though it happened at his home, he did not ban popcorn.

Popcorn experts tell us the rule is very simple: When the popping slows to one or two seconds between pops, stop the microwave.

That's your common sense tip of the day.