byssinosis

Obstructive airway disease in people who work with unprocessed cotton, flax, or hemp; caused by reaction to material in the dust and thought to include endotoxin from bacterial contamination. Sometimes called "Monday morning asthma" since patients improve when away from work on the weekend. SYN: cotton-dust asthma, cotton-mill fever, mill fever. [G. byssos, flax, + -osis, condition]

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bys·si·no·sis .bis-ə-'nō-səs n, pl -no·ses -.sēz an occupational respiratory disease associated with inhalation of cotton, flax, or hemp dust and characterized initially by chest tightness, shortness of breath, and cough, and eventually by irreversible lung disease called also brown lung, brown lung disease, mill fever

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n.

an industrial disease of the lungs caused by inhalation of dusts of cotton, flax, hemp, or sisal. The patient characteristically has chest tightness and wheeze after the weekend break, which wears off during the working week. The causal agent has not been identified.

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bys·si·no·sis (bis″ĭ-noґsis) [Gr. byssos flax + -osis] a pulmonary disease seen in cotton textile workers and preparers of flax and soft hemp, due to inhalation of textile dust. Two forms are distinguished, acute and chronic b. Called also brown lung, cotton-dust asthma, and stripper's asthma.