An Occupationally-Related Disease

Byssinosis or brown lung disease primarily affects workers in the cotton, hemp or flax industries. It causes asthma-like breathing difficulty and can lead to lung damage similar to that caused by irreversible chronic obstructive lung disease. In the 1960s, the disease was deemed nonexistent in the United States. It was not recognized by the scientific community in the United States until 1970. IT was after this point that the Occupational Safety and Health Act was developed to address byssinosis as well as other occupational diseases. The OSHA recognizes cotton dust as a hazard. As of now, the OSHA proposes having a cotton dust manual to solidify the policies and procedures to enforce the manufacturing operations. They also have a paper that talks about the effects of cotton dust exposure and lays down several options that can be used to reduce illness.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 4, 2018 at 6:53 PM

    Before reading your post I did not know much information on Byssinosis. I would have never thought that it affected cotton workers. It's quite shocking that it causes similar lung damage as that caused by COPD. I wonder if there is some sort of mask that these employees could wear in order to decrease their risk of getting this disease.

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  2. UnknownNovember 5, 2018 at 6:01 PM

    I also discussed a similar occupationally related disease. I think one of the most common effects of environmental challenges are changes to the lungs. Especially because most of the most hurtful things to our lungs we cant see.

    Great post, Chris.

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