Cotton Fiber and Lungs (not necessarily OT)

I've been busy making 988 2" HSTs and had to stop half way through to clean out the bobbin area. It is a drop-in bobbin setup and it looked like it was lined in felt. My sewing room is also layered in a dust that I'm sure is not usual house dust, but in fact, fibers from thread and fabric and batting. I'm concerned that I'm inhaling a lot of these fibers, and I can't help but wonder what is happening to the inside of my lungs. Will they eventually look like they are lined with felt too? Mickie

Reply to
Mickie Swall
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It's definitely a concern. Maybe you need to discuss this with your Dr. or on one of the health groups online.

Reply to
Marie Dodge

One of the gals I worked with at the Fabric Store had gotten Lint Lung. She had to quit making draperies for a living, sell all her equipment, and come to work with us. She couldn't afford disability as her husband was already on it. Just a head's up

Butterfly (take care of yourself--maybe wear a mask--I know it isn't ideal but Lint Lung is much worse when you get into cold air)

Reply to
Butterflywings

I don't know the answer to that question, but I know that I usually can't sew for longer than about 2-3 hours at a time because I seem to be allergic to some of the dyes used in the fabrics. I always wash my fabric as soon as I purchase it. I have a hard time if I go on the guild quilt retreat, and we are all in the same room sewing for 2-3 days. My head stops up, my chest starts feeling tight, my eyes start to hurt, and I start coughing. The doctor said the main problem is the dyes used in the fabric, and then the lint from the fabric that can't help but be in the air. I can go to something else for a few hours, and I clear up. He says that is not really a bad thing because you need to be getting up anyway.

Sherry Starr

Reply to
Sherry Starr

There's also the lint from the dryer when you pre-wash the fabrics. That would remove some of the lint from the fabric, but you still get the fuzzies in the bobbin area so it doesn't get it all- or are the bobbin fuzzies from the thread? Would mercerized thread make a difference? (I guess not since we still get the bobbin stuff.) But do we really sew all that much as the drapery lady that Butterfly mentioned? Did she use mostly cotton fabric like we do? How close is your face to the fabric? I have more questions than answers.... sorry. Yeah, I think it's a concern- but I still won't be sewing wearing a mask. I can't even stand a mask for a short time while measuring fabric dyes.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

I haven't been keeping up with the individual health news, so forgive me if you've posted the answer to this before. Is there any reason to think that your lungs don't work to be self-cleaning the way everyone else's are? People whose lungs have been damaged from smoking or chemical exposure or asbestos or illness might have trouble clearing out their lung and nasal passages. For the rest of us, the natural mechanisms work just fine. There have been particles in the air for millenia. We've evolved complicated systems for exhaling and sneezing them out (think: phlegm). They don't accumulate.

--Lia

Reply to
Julia Altshuler

Now this is really OT, I change the subject line.....

Six years ago an x-ray indicated "early stages of emphesema". Successive x-rays every 18 months since then haven't shown any progression of the condition. I also have asthma which is more or less under control with daily medication. For 2 years I underwent a series of allergy shots for dust, mold, mildew, grass. All those allergic reactions disappeared and the shots were ceased about 2 years ago. This weekend the allergic reaction suddely returned with a vengence. But it only happened at night. My flannel sheets are new this month, I washed them before the first use and again twice after use, and each time the dryer lint catcher is really full with lint. When the allergies acted up again, I immediately drew the conclusion that the return of the symptoms was due to the sheets and pillow cases that I bury my face in each night while sleeping. I replaced the flannel with old cotton bedding, but the symptoms have persisted. I've started wearing a mask for the moment, giving my lungs a break and hoping they still have the ability to cleanse themselves (and yes, there has been an excessive amount of phlegm, which I attributed to an upper respiratory infection).

Thanks everybody for all your input (is there really a condidion "lint lung"??) And I will discuss this with my doctor as soon as possible.

Mickie

Reply to
Mickie Swall

Well let's google the textile industry and health hazards and see what we get.

Here is a hot table of links to various osha standards and etc. for the textiles industry:

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Here is the standard (and recently amended) osha fact sheet on cotton dust:
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There is a phone number you can call to make inquiries at the bottom of the fact sheet.

Now we are not exposed to the constant dust you get in a factory, but can the effects become cumulative?

A look at a reference on about.com:

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Crossing the disorder with the word seamstress and then again with the word tailor leads to searching "tailor's disease". Wherein we find that "tailor's disease" was a synonym for pulmonary tuberculosis. A bit more searchng finds several references wondering if those old diagnosis were actually not any form of tubrculosis, but actually byssinosis (brown lung) the disease most commonly associated will textile mill workers and caused by inhaleing textile fibers.

I ran across a few cases of seamstresses retired with respritory complaints attributed to inhaling fabric dust and fiber, and a fair few sweatshop stories where several workers developed byssinosis.

So could a professional quilter get this? Well batting puts out a lot more cotton dust than fabric. I would hazard that the correct answer is a resounding Maybe.

I am putting a fan in my studio. Probably one of those static attracters for dust too. I think I saw a studio sized one in one of my art catalogs. It will go well with the nox-out at the other end of the room.

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

Reply to
nzlstar*

Could it be worse than all the cat hair around here we breathe? ;)

I am shocked at how few folks open their windows for fresh air. Granted some locales don't allow for it all year but I have friends here that never air the house out. A mold expert told me that once a week the house should be opened and the air exchanged.

My dad the carpenter for many years breathed > On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:59:58 -0500, "Mickie Swall"

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Reply to
Taria

That's what she called it. Hadn't heard of it before but you sure could hear her coughing. First thought she had asthma--but she told me otherwise.

Butterfly (Didn't push for more info)

Reply to
Butterflywings

Yes actually. But I do not think that the casual quilter is at hazard. It seems to be a matter of consistent prolonged exposure. Of course like everything else that will get you, a goodly number of people are not affected at all. Not every mill worker got it, some still do get regardless of the precautions now in place. One of my grammas worked at the worsted mill for almost 20 years and never had a respiratory problem. She is also my gramma that has been smoking since she was 11 (since about 1928). Yay for good genes!

I think that good ventilation would be enough or most of us here. I am thinking of extra precautions for myself, strictly because of other activities that generate hazardous dust or fumes. I often use drawing crayons that bear a strong similarity to pastels, as well as charcol sticks and powder, various chalks, and yes actual pastels though not as often as I am trying to move from pastel to watrcolor for preliminary color sketches. Then there are the turps and white spirits, methyl-ethyl ketone, occasionaly benzene, and the assorted goodies in spirit based varnishes. You see one end of the studio is sewing, but the other is fine art. Then there is the dyeing I do, mostly in the second kitchen on the floor below.

So adding some more ventilation and considering a static dust grabber is eminently sensible for me all things considered. This is a good excuse for me to quit procrastinating on it.

One of he first things we do the minute it gets warm enough is fling open the windows. In a house with five people and 4 cats, warm enough is usually about 65 degrees. lol

At the furniture factories, we had dust attractors that ran on tracks across the ceiling. Over in sanding they had quite a few vacumn attachments and their own air sucker filter, so the sawdust problem was not what it could have been. In a town full of old cabinet makers surprisingly few of them have lung troubles. You would think that decades of sawdust would do it to you.

That aerosol basting spray is some shag nasty stuff. Most of the bad things in it aren't even in art materials anymore because it is so bad. And artists are people that have a tendancy to daub about with lead, arsenic, mercury, and assorted other scary stuff. Anybody using that basting spray should have good ventilation already and thus have no fear of cotton dust.

Hair dye, fabric dye, paint, dust, fumes, wierd chemicals, swimming, rock climbing, sports in general, dancing, driving, crossing the street at 3:30 in the afternoon, all things have their own hazards. You have to be aware, own the risk, and be sensible.

NightMist

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Reply to
NightMist

Fortunately, your lungs will react by giving you the urge to cough it all out. But, do we need to research this more. What about the chemicals used to finish the fabric? Gee, maybe our stashes will survive us!

Reply to
Lenore L

'Byssinosis' is the technical name, aka 'brown lung', 'mill lung', 'cotton lung':

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Kay

Reply to
Kay Lancaster

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