[Diagnosis and epidemiology of respiratory system diseases due to plant dusts]

Of the respiratory tract diseases - byssinosis - i.e. the disease diagnosed in textile industry workers has aroused interest and controversies for many years. In Western Europe Countries the USA, Egypt and Pakistan this disease was diagnosed in more than half of the workers employed at cotton processing. Epidemiological data imply that in Eastern and Middle Europe few authors diagnose byssinosis in the population exposed to vegetable dusts. In the Soviet Union, the greatest cotton producer in the world, processing the greatest amounts of this raw material in the textile industry, medical examinations carried out in different centres did not show byssinosis symptoms in textile workers, that would apply to Schilling's criteria. Vegetable dusts inherent in agricultural and food industry largely promote the occurrence of nonspecific respiratory tract diseases. They are diagnosed as chronic bronchitis, which at "dusted" workstations are the mean cause of sickness absenteeism. The preventive activities aimed at the reduction of hazardous effects of dust upon organism would consist mostly in application of technical measures, i.e. technological processes hermetization and ventilation and only in scarce cases - in the use of good antidust personal protective measures.