byssinosis

Byssinosis is an airway disease caused by inhaling dust from cotton, flax or hemp, classically affecting workers in textile mills. Its hallmark is a peculiar timing pattern that gave it the nickname Monday fever: chest tightness and breathlessness are worst on the first working day after a break, then ease as the week goes on.

The dust of these plant fibres carries contaminants, including bacterial fragments called endotoxin, that inflame the airways and cause them to narrow. With fresh re-exposure after a weekend away, the reaction is strongest, producing the characteristic first-day symptoms. With years of continued exposure, the early reversible tightness can give way to chronic, fixed airflow obstruction resembling chronic bronchitis or COPD.

Diagnosis rests on the occupational history, the timing of symptoms, and lung-function tests, particularly a drop in airflow measured across a work shift. Treatment centres on reducing dust through better ventilation, processing methods and respiratory protection; bronchodilators help symptoms. Once well known in industrialized textile regions, byssinosis has become rarer where dust controls are enforced but persists in places where they are weak.