The word byssinosis is derived from the Greek word vacros., meaning fine linen. Originally the word was used in a wider, more general sense, whereas to-day it indicates a specific industrial entity. Byssinosis is a respiratory disease affecting workers inhaling dust in cotton mills. The condition has been known to exist for many years, and was first recorded by Greenhow in a report to the Privy...

background: cotton is the main agricultural export product in benin. cotton dust is thus present in the air during the handling and processing of cotton. this dust contains a mixture of substances including ground up plant matter, fibres, bacteria, fungi, soil, pesticides, noncotton matter, and other contaminants. while cotton processing is decreasing in industrialized countries, it is increasi...

The pathogenesis of byssinosis has been attributed to several different immunopathologic mechanisms, including a type III (immune complex) pulmonary injury. To further examine this type III theory, sera (Monday preshift) from 59 cotton textile workers were examined by gel diffusion and counterimmunoelectrophoresis for precipitating antibodies to aqueous extracts of cotton bract, carpels, stems,...

Ramazinni, in 1705,1 was probably the first to record a description of the condition, though the term 'byssinosis', from the Greek for flax or linen, was not applied to it until 1908.2 It was Richard Schilling, however, who, in two papers in 1956,1 established the importance ofbyssinosis as acommon disabling condition within the cotton industry,3 and his work led to the inclusion of the conditi...

Respirable cotton dust, implicated in the pathogenesis of byssinosis, contains a number of bioactive compounds. These include lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tannins, bacterial peptides, byssinosin, iacinilene C, and 1,3-beta-D-glucan. The exact aetiological agent of byssinosis in such dust has not been definitively identified nor has its mechanism of action on lower lung surfaces been determined. In...

In a mill spinning coarse cotton the prevalence of byssinosis and other respiratory symptoms, and the F.E.V.1.0, were measured in a group of 29 men and I117 women employed in the winding room. All the men and 95% of the women at risk were included. Dust concentrations, measured with a modified Hexhlet at various work points in the winding room, ranged from i-65 to 6 o5 mg. Jm.3 total dust. Thes...

Not all workers exposed to flax dust contract byssinosis. It is not known what determines susceptibility or insusceptibility. This study is an attempt to establish whether the incidence of histocompatibility antigens is involved in susceptibility to the disease. Forty patients suffering from flax byssinosis were tissue-typed for HLA-A and -B antigens. HLA-B27 was significantly more common in th...

Zu§kin, E., and Valic, F. (1973). British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 30, 375-380. Respiratory response in simultaneous exposure to flax and hemp dust. The effect of exposure to high concentrations of mixtures of hemp and flax dust was studied in 124 workers in two textiie mills (mill A: 65-70% hemp and the rest flax, mean dust concentration 13 9 mg/m3; and mill B: about 35% hemp and the re...

Previous reports suggest that byssinosis, an asthma-like condition among textile workers, may be mediated in part by histamine liberated following inhalation of dust. A simple, sensitive, and reliable procedure using pig platelets which contain the unusually high concentration of 0.8-1.6 microgram histamine/10(9) cells has been devised for the assay of histamine-releasing factors in cotton mill...

All the 303 full time day workers in a carpet weaving factory were submitted to a physical examination, chest radiography, and vitalograph test, and answered a respiratory questionnaire. Fifty four healthy non-exposed subjects served as controls. Dust concentrations and concentrations of bacterial endotoxin were measured. Of the 303 workers, 259 (85.5%) had airway symptoms and 62 (20.5%) had ma...