Since the description by Reed, Sosman, and Barbee in 1965 there have been several accounts of lung disease in pigeon fanciers. The majority of these have occurred in adults but we have been able to find records of 10 cases under the age of 16, the youngest being 8 years old. Only one of these occurred in a girl, and 4 cases were 15 years old (Shannon et al., 1969; Stiehm, Reed, and Tooley, 1967...

Respiratory symptoms and abnormalities of lung function were studied in 84 female and 27 male hemp workers employed in two textile mills (A and B) processing soft hemp (C sativa). In mill A 46 women and 27 men were investigated and 38 female workers were studied in mill B. Forty nine women and 30 men from a non-dusty industry served as controls. A significantly higher prevalence of almost all c...

Endotoxin is thought to contribute to pulmonary hyperresponsiveness in byssinosis, asthma, and the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of this study was to elucidate the mechanism of this phenomenon in the isolated, blood-free perfused mouse lung. Perfusion with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) had no effect on pulmonary resistance or pulmonary artery pressure, but induced airway hyperr...

It is both an honor and a source of sadness that I present this first Thomas A. Neff Lecture. Tom had the primary attributes ofthe academic chestphysician.he was a fine and dedicated teacher, and a caring, highly competent practi¬ tioner of his specialty. I also have it from someone who should know that he was a favorite of the fellows. At a time when specialty medicine needs more Tom Neffs, th...

BACKGROUND Long-term occupational exposure to cotton dust that contains endotoxin is associated with chronic respiratory symptoms and excessive decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), but the mechanisms of endotoxin-related chronic airflow obstruction remain unclear. OBJECTIVE In the current study, we examined temporal aspects of the exposure-response relationship between airborn...

The concentrations of airborne dust and bacteria were determined in 12 flax scutching mills and in two milk processing plants in Normandy, France. A total of 308 of 340 flax workers and 111 of 113 milk processors volunteered to answer a respiratory questionnaire. Personal exposure to airborne dust in the scutching mills varied from 22.2 mg/m3 to 144 mg/m3 and areal concentrations from 8.92 mg/m...