An industrial hygiene and respiratory disease prevalence study was performed at 37 cotton gins (SIC-2211) in the southern United States. Results were compared with those from comparison workers in nonindustrial occupations matched for sex, race, age, height, weight, smoking status, and region. Ambient respirable cotton dust concentrations were measured using vertical elutriators, and particle size distribution was characterized. Standard pulmonary function testing and respiratory questionnaires were used to assess lung function, work history, smoking history, and respiratory symptoms. Geometric mean dust concentrations ranged from 0.13 milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3) in the yard to 0.37mg/m3 at the gin stand. Air movement and machinery layout had a significant effect on dust concentrations. The mass median diameter of particles ranged from 2.7 to 8.5 microns with a mean of 5.30 microns. Cotton gin workers tended to experience more dyspnea and bronchitis than comparisons, but this difference was significant only for bronchitis among gin workers who had never smoked. There was no excess prevalence of byssinosis in gin workers compared to nonindustrial workers. Nonsmoking gin workers had significantly more respiratory disorders arising from exposure to textile vegetable dusts. There was an increasing prevalence of bronchitis as dust concentrations increased in gin workers who never smoked. Increases were seen in respiratory disorders as textile vegetable dust concentrations and years of exposure increased. The author concludes that cotton dust exposure causes increases in bronchitis and respiratory disorders and decreases in lung function. It is recommended that 0.500mg/m3 geometric mean be set as a standard for the cotton ginning industry. Suggestions are made for controlling employee cotton dust exposure and implementing a medical surveillance program in the industry.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.