A case of marked progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after several episodes of occupational inhalation fever in a carding machine operator was reported. The patient was a 45 year old male with a history of exertional dyspnea who experienced recurrent episodes of flu like symptoms beginning 2 weeks after starting work at a synthetic textile plant. After approximately 9 months on the job the patient was hospitalized with fever, chills, chest pain, productive cough, and malaise that had not responded to antibiotic treatment. A decreased white cell count was seen along with evidence of moderately severe obstructive disease. The patient returned to work after the acute symptoms resolved; however, he experienced dyspnea with mild exertion at this time. The flu like illnesses continued to recur over the next 18 months at which time the patient stopped working on the advice of his physician. He was hospitalized 1 month later with chest pain and diaphoresis. Severe obstruction with a significant bronchodilator response was seen and he was placed on disability leave. Polymer fume fever due to exposure to polytetrafluoroethylene (9002840) was suspected as the cause of his illness. A subsequent examination of the patient's workplace demonstrated that major renovations had been done since his departure to improve chemical contamination and air quality; however, potential for significant exposures to formaldehyde (50000) were still evident. The authors conclude that polymer fume fever may not always be a benign, self limiting disease and may result in permanent airways damage. Long term follow up is recommended.
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.