M10.8 Blog about an occupationally-related disease

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For my disease selection, I chose Byssinosis or "Brown Lung". This is the first time that I heard of this illness, usually we hear more about black lung and white lung in my opinion. According to the American Lung Association, Byssinosis affects people who work in the hemp, cotton, and flax industry. Workers usually develop Byssinosis by inhaling raw cotton, hemp, flax or other textile dust. It causes asthma-like symptoms and can lead to chronic obstructive lung disease. OSHA recognizes cotton dust as a respiratory hazard and the importance of monitoring exposure and the development of Byssinosis. OSHA has several manuals detailing regulations and procedures on recognizing and handling cotton dust exposure. OSHA has also enforced standards of safety in textile mills and inspection protocols to monitor cotton dust safety.

In defining exposure to cotton or textile particles, OSHA stated the following, "Cotton dust means dust present in the air during the handling or processing of cotton, which may contain a mixture of many substances including ground up plant matter, fiber, bacteria, fungi, soil, pesticides,non-cotton plant matter and other contaminants which may have accumulated with the cotton during the growing, harvesting and subsequent processing or storage periods. Any dust present during the handling and processing of cotton through the weaving or knitting of fabrics, and dust present in other operations or manufacturing processes using raw or waste cotton fibers or cotton fiber byproducts from textile mills are considered cotton dust within this definition. Lubricating oil mist associated with weaving operations is not considered cotton dust" (1910.1043 - Cotton dust.).

References
https://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/byssinosis/
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/cottondust/hazards.html

Comments

  1. Sintia ShahbazNovember 4, 2018 at 10:05 AM

    Hi,
    I had not heard of brown lung either, but I am glad to see that there are regulations for this under OSHA. I wonder if workers know their risks would even choose to do these jobs? I would assume with proper knowledge more people would choose to not perform such tasks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 5, 2018 at 4:35 PM

    My first thoughts were along the same lines as Sintia, although I’m sure this type of exposure is palpable for many workers. Having worked in a wood shop before, I can relate to the feeling of inhaling minute quantities of sawdust. I’d imagine the experience of cotton and hemp exposure is similar in its irritant properties.

    ReplyDelete

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