Read more about this disease, some with Classification – Types – Signs and symptoms – Genetics – Pathophysiology – Diagnosis – Screening – Prevention – Treatment and management – Cures and much more, some including pictures and video when available.
Byssinosis, also called “brown lung disease” or “Monday fever”, is an occupational lung disease caused by exposure to cotton dust in inadequately ventilated working environments.[1] It is not the cotton dust directly that causes the disease, it is endotoxins that come from the cell walls of gram negative bacteria that grow on the cotton that cause the disease. It commonly occurs in workers who are employed in yarn and fabric manufacture industries. Brown lung can ultimately result in narrowing of the trachea in the lungs, destruction of lung tissue and death from infection or respiratory failure.
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.[1] 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.
The term “brown lung” is a misnomer, as the lungs of affected individuals are not brown.
[tubepress mode=’tag’, tagValue=’Byssinosis’]