Pesticide Lung: A Pilot Investigation of Fruit-Growers and Farmers During the Spraying Season

  • Lings, S.
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AUTHOR ABSTRACT

A fruit-grower with large, atypical lung infiltrations and lung fibrosis triggered off an investigation of fruit-growers during the spraying season. An interview was carried out together with a Wright peak flow meter test and an x-ray examination of the chest. No fewer than 156 spray preparations were used by the group; individual fruit-growers used between three and 27. In connection with spraying, 41% of subjects had one or other type of symptom; peak flow was reduced in 19% and x-ray chances were seen in 24%. A questionnaire was returned by 132 of 235 farmers. Of these, 60 had worked with biocides, 72 had not. A non-significant higher frequency of symptoms was found among those who used biocides. The results would indicate that biocides (or "pesticides") can give rise to a lung disease, "biocide lung," which comprises (1) pneumonia, radiologically demonstrable by more or less transient round infiltrations and (2) chronic progressive lung fibrosis.

JOURNAL AND NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE ID#

JOURNAL: Br J Ind Med. 1982; 39(4): 370- 376.

Note: British Journal of Industrial Medicine.

NLOM ID#: 83048891 .

Publication #: 83048891

This document was extracted from the CDC-NIOSH Epidemiology of Farm Related Injuries: Bibliography With Abstracts, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

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