Fw: Toxic Toner Dust Disease ~ 1996 article

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From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2001 10:30 AM

Subject: Toxic Toner Dust Disease ~ 1996 article

> http://personalmd.com/news/a1996090603.shtml

>

> Toxic Toner Dust Disease

>

>

>

> NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Is your work making you sick? It is for one man, who

> developed lung disease after inhaling toxic dust from an unlikely source

> -- the photocopier toner used at work, reported researchers from Vienna in

> a letter published in this week's issue of The Lancet.

>

> The case is strikingly similar to one reported in the same journal two

> years ago, in which a 44-year-old Spanish woman developed lung disease

> after inhaling dust at a photocopying shop. That woman was diagnosed with

> a rare condition called siderosilicosis, inflammation of the lungs caused

> by iron- and silica-containing dust.

>

> In this case, the 39-year-old male non-smoker went to the doctor because

> of a dry cough and breathlessness. Medical sleuthing showed that tissue in

> the man's lungs and lymph nodes contained pigment, silicon and copper

> particles that were identical to those found in toner dust at his job. The

> man was employed as a computer-based data collection specialist at a

> newspaper agency for 18 months.

>

> The patient was diagnosed with granulomatous pneumonitis, allergic lesions

> of the lung. After nine months of treatment with steroids to calm the

> immune reaction, there was still little improvement.

>

> Inhaled dust is well-known to cause lung disease, and has been found in

> miners who breathe in carbon- and silica-containing coal dust, and in

> field workers who inhale copper-containing solution used for spraying

> vineyards.

>

> But lung disease from office equipment may be on the rise, according to

> the letter. " With increasing use of photocopiers, more patients with

> pulmonary disease due to exposure to toner dust are expected, " wrote lead

> author of the letter, Dr. Armbruster, of the Pulmologisches

> Zentrum Vienna, in Austria.

>

> Source: The Lancet (1996;348:690)

>

>