Byssinosis

Byssinosis
Other namesBrown lung disease, Monday fever
Byssinosis is caused by exposure to cotton dust in inadequately ventilated working environments, imaged cotton harvesting in Uzbekistan, cotton
SpecialtyPulmonology 
Edit this on Wikidata

Byssinosis[n 1] is an occupational lung disease caused by exposure to cotton dust in inadequately ventilated working environments.[2] Byssinosis commonly occurs in textile workers who are employed in yarn and fabric manufacture industries. It is now thought that the cotton dust directly causes the disease and some believe that the causative agents are endotoxins that come from the cell walls of gram-negative bacteria that grow on the cotton. Although bacterial endotoxin is a likely cause, the absence of similar symptoms in workers in other industries exposed to endotoxins makes this uncertain.[3]

Of the 81 byssinosis-related fatalities reported in the United States between 1990 and 1999, 48% included an occupation in the yarn, thread, and fabric industry on the victim's death certificate.[4] This disease often occurred in the times of the Industrial Revolution. Most commonly young girls working in mills or other textile factories would be afflicted with this disease. In the United States, from 1996 to 2005, North Carolina accounted for about 37% of all deaths caused by byssinosis, with 31, followed by South Carolina (8) and Georgia (7).[5]

There is a lack of information regarding the prevalence and impact of byssinosis in low and middle income countries (LMIC) despite the fact of the 25 million tons of cotton produced world wide, about two thirds of this production comes from LMICs like India, Pakistan, and China. [6]

The term "brown lung" is a misnomer, as the lungs of affected individuals are not brown.[7] Byssinosis is also known as cotton worker's lung, mill fever, brown lung disease, and Monday fever.[8]

Symptoms

Byssinosis can ultimately result in narrowing of the airways, lung scarring and death from infection or respiratory failure.

Diagnosis

Patient history should reveal exposure to cotton, flax, hemp, or jute dust. Diagnostic tests include a lung function test and a chest x ray or CT scan. Measurable change in lung function before and after working shifts is key to diagnosis. Patients suffering from byssinosis show a significant drop in FEV1 over the course of work shift. Chest radiographs show areas of opacity due to fibrosis of the pulmonary parenchyma.

Treatment

Affected workers should be offered alternative employment. Employers in the manufacturing and textile industry should take preventative measures to ensure workers are not exposed to excessive dust and cotton during their work shifts. Continued exposure leads to development of persistent symptoms and progressive decline in FEV1.[8] Dust control measures can also help reduce the risk of textile workers developing byssinosis.[6]

Notes and References

Notes

  1. ↑ From the Greek βύσσινον byssinon, from βύσσος byssos, "flax, the linen made therefrom, later Indian cotton, silk"[1] and the medical suffix -osis (< -ωσις).

References

  1. ↑ βύσσινον, βύσσος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  2. ↑ Hollander, AG (December 1953). "Byssinosis". Chest. American College of Chest Physicians. 24 (6): 674–678. doi:10.1378/chest.24.6.674. PMID 13107566.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ Newman, Lee S. (June 2008). "Byssinosis". Merck Manuals: online medical dictionary. Merck & Co. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  4. ↑ "Section 4. Byssinosis and Related Exposures". The Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance Report, 2002. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 2003.
  5. ↑ "Byssinosis: Number of deaths by state, U.S. residents age 15 and over, 1996-2005". National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. March 2009. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  6. 1 2 Nafees, Asaad Ahmed; Matteis, Sara De; Burney, Peter; Cullinan, Paul (2022-01-24). "Contemporary Prevalence of Byssinosis in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review". Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health: 101053952110730. doi:10.1177/10105395211073051. ISSN 1010-5395.
  7. ↑ Barry S. Levy; David H. Wegman; Sherry L. Baron; Rosemary K. Sokas (2011). Occupational and environmental health recognizing and preventing disease and injury (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 416. ISBN 9780199750061.
  8. 1 2 Patel, Pujan H.; Yarrarapu, Siva Naga S.; Anjum, Fatima (2022), "Byssinosis", StatPearls, Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing, PMID 30137833, retrieved 2022-02-10

Further reading


This article is issued from Offline. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.