Document nm66XR85a450O2XOgMGN36oK8

Industrial Hygiene Digest - 30 January, lv!jj V9 A Case of Pulmonary Asbestosis, with Its Development Followed by X-ray and Its Post-Mortem Study. P. Luton, J. Champeix, and P. Faure. Arch, maladies profess. 1_Z, 629-633 (1951) French. The case reported is said to have been the first one of asbestosis known to have occurred in France. The man had been exposed to high con centrations of asbestos for 11 years. Symptoms and progressive x-ray find ings are described. After death the lungs showed general thickening through out, especially of the plurae, but with no localized nodules. Many asbestos bodies were seen, isolated and in groups, together with giant cells and min eral.particles. No evidence of tuberculosis was found. The dust particles could be traced not only in the lung vessels, but also in the vessels of the liver, kidneys and spleen. The action of asbestos is apparently mechanical rather than chemical. -- Cond. from Bull. Hyg. 80 Byssinosis. J. B. M. Vismans, Ned. Tijdschr. Geneesk. 96,800 (Apr. 5, 1952). Dutch. Byssinosis occurs in workers in the cotton industry, chiefly in those who handle the cotton before it is sent to the spinning room. The author quotes from the literature and presents the histories of seven patients observed by himself which illustrate the three stages of the disease. He also comments on the incidence, etiology, pathologic anatomy, and diagnosis. Generally, the disease develops only after the worker has worked with cotton for at least five years. A constricted, tight feeling in the chest is usually the first mani festation, and since this symptom is often severest on Mondays, the term "Monday fever" or"Monday cough" has been applied to it. Patients with the advanced form of byssinosis may die of decompensation of the right side of the heart. Prophylaxis is of primary importance and should involve giving atten tion to the selection of workers and to dust control in cotton mills. -- Arch. Ind. Hyg. & Occ. Med. 81 Studies on Cotton Dust in Relation to Byssinosis. Part HI. Comparison of Cotton Dust and House Dust by Chemical and Skin Tests. H. R. Cayton, G. Furness, D. S. Jackson, and H. B. Maitland. Brit. J. Ind. Med. 9, 303-308 (Oct. 1952). An extract of cotton dust has been compared chemically and by skin tests with extracts of house dust. Both contained a polysaccharide associated with a polypeptide grouping of amino-acids giving none of the usual color reactions for proteins. Quantitative and chromatographic tests revealed a similarity in the sugars and amino-acids detected. Both extracts produced the early type of skin reaction. Cotton dust generally produced also a late skin reaction, whereas the house dust did not. The two extracts, therefore, were not identical. Polysaccharide-polypeptide compounds were probably responsible for the early skin reaction. Their source is not known but they