Silo-filler's disease.

Between 1955 and 1987, 17 patients were examined at the Mayo Clinic shortly after exposure to silo gas. All exposures had occurred in conventional top-unloading silos. Acute lung injury occurred in 11 patients, 1 of whom died; early diffuse alveolar damage with hyaline membranes and hemorrhagic pulmonary edema and acute edema of the airways were found at autopsy.

Gases in forage tower silos.

Measurements of hazardous gas concentrations in forage tower silos are described. The problems associated with sampling in silos, the identity and distribution of gases and their rate of evolution, and the effects of forced and natural ventilation are considered. Particular attention is given to conditions at times when entry to the silo by farm personnel is likely and the possibility of farmers carrying out gas measurements is discussed.

Feed-associated respiratory illness in farmers.

A variety of respiratory hazards are present in the farm environment. Disorders such as Silo Filler's Disease and Farmer's Lung Disease have been detailed in the literature. A retrospective study of hospital visits for farm-associated lung injury in rural Otsego County, New York during an 11-yr period is reported herein.

Grain dust and the lungs.

Grain dust is composed of a large number of materials, including various types of grain and their disintegration products, silica, fungi, insects and mites. The clinical syndromes described in relation to exposure to grain dust are chronic bronchitis, grain dust asthma, extrinsic allergic alveolitis, grain fever and silo-filler's lung. Rhinitis and conjunctivitis are also common in grain workers.

Nitrogen dioxide-induced pulmonary disease: five new cases and a review of the leterature.

Twenty-three patients exposed to nitrogen dioxide in agriculture or industry were referred to the University of Wisconsin Medical Center. Eighteen experienced a transient upper respiratory tract syndrome; five developed pulmonary edema or bronchiolitis obliterans. This latter group responded to steroid therapy but all demonstrated evidence of persistent pulmonary dysfunction on follow-up studies.

Lung disease in farmers.

Lung diseases in farmers attributable to their occupation include (a) farmer's lung, caused by exposure to mouldy hay, (b) the asthma caused by exposure to grain dust and (c) silo-filler's disease. Their prevalence in Canada is unknown. Farmer's lung results from inhalation of mould spores in hay; the mechanism is immunologic.

Incidence and significance of precipitating antibodies in occupational and non-occupational extrinsic non-atopic (type III) asthma (bronchial asthma with precipitins).

Precipitating antibodies against different organic enviromental dusts were studied in 37 patients with suggestive symptoms of nonatopic bronchial asthma, comparatively with a group of 4 patients with atopic asthma and with a group of asymptomatic subjects, exposed to the same organic dusts as the majority of patients. Precipitins were found present in over 75% of the sera from patients with infectious type non-atopic asthma and were associated with positive semidelayed type skin tests as well as with positive bronchial provocation tests a few hours after antigen inhalation. No precipitins were found in the sera from patients with atopic asthma.

Silo-Filler's disease.

The effects of oxides of nitrogen inhalation are reported in a 21-year-old gardener exposed to silage gas. Initial nausea, cough and fever remitted, but respiratory failure developed 3 weeks later. Roentgenograms and lung function studies revealed pulmonary edema, volume restriction, and severely impaired gas exchange.

Study of atmospheric fungi in a big cereal silo over a period of one year.

A quantitative and qualitative study of the atmospheric fungi in a big silo was carried out over a period of one year (April 1973--April 1974). About 6 to 12 Petri dishes with Czapek medium were exposed for 5 minutes every month at different floors of the silo. The study showed:--a very high number of fungi colonies, reaching as many as 903 in March 1974 (a total of 60 min exposure); the dominant fungus was penicillium which was, however, overpassed in certain months by aspergillus (flavus and fumigatus) which in May 1973 reached about twice the incidence of penicillium.