Noah Swart

Blog Topic

Cotton Dust

 Mr. Moss

Dust is constantly in the
air we breath (My photo)

  Our lungs are one of the most susceptible organs to damage and disease; this is due to the fact were always breathing. The air we breathe constantly isn’t really filtered all that well, leaving certain hazardous particulate matter floating around waiting for our lungs to breath it in. One of the most hazardous air particles happen to be in the form of dust, Cotton Dust. Cotton Dust has been shown to be the cause of many different diseases in the industrial workplace. The most common disease being Byssinosis also commonly known as Brown Lung Disease.

  Byssinosis is known to be caused by the presence of Cotton Dust in yarn, fabric and textile factories that lack proper ventilation. The dust can build up in the lung relatively quickly, causing tightness in chest, constant wheezing and in some cases pyspnea. In the cases of long time employees chronic effects have been found in large quantities, showing that constant exposure to Cotton Dust and the bacterial particles often associated with cotton cause major damage to the individuals health. Chronic effects usually range from reduced pulmonary function, to serious chronic bronchitis. Bronchitis becoming a growing disease in the older population, causing inflammation of the airwaves and making it extremely hard to breath.

Cotton Ball

  OHSA recently has been cracking down on more cases of the lack of proper workplace ventilation. This has helped lower the overall cases of Byssinosis but up and coming cases of both chronic and acute diseases will still show. The lack of being able to catch such a problem at the source shows the lack of proper workplace safety measures in the past, along with the lack of air quality tests. Being an indoor problem it doesn’t rank as high as some other chronic lung diseases but it still shows the necessity to always have a cautionary mindset when dealing with the air you constantly breathe.