A Vote for Wool

[ForresterModern]

I formerly had a colleague doing asthma research who made a direct correlation between frequency and severity of asthma in children with the microparticles of synthetic rubber that are the result of automotive tire wear. Huge study with multivariable analysis. Since smoking has diminished and coal mining hygiene has been improved this is considered the most common cause (pathologically proven) of black lung disease among city dwellers. Besides causing slow progressive fibrosis of lung lining membranes it can set off significant low level chronic allergic reactions that cause the spastic and inflammatory changes of reactive airways disease (aka asthma). One of the reasons asthmatics are so concerned about pollution alerts. Amazing how we never think about what happens to stuff that we wear out or burn or otherwise discard into our environment, just assuming it disappears miraculaously on its own.

[tyger]

I formerly had a colleague doing asthma research who made a direct correlation between frequency and severity of asthma in children with the microparticles of synthetic rubber that are the result of automotive tire wear. Huge study with multivariable analysis. Since smoking has diminished and coal mining hygiene has been improved this is considered the most common cause (pathologically proven) of black lung disease among city dwellers. Besides causing slow progressive fibrosis of lung lining membranes it can set off significant low level chronic allergic reactions that cause the spastic and inflammatory changes of reactive airways disease (aka asthma). One of the reasons asthmatics are so concerned about pollution alerts. Amazing how we never think about what happens to stuff that we wear out or burn or otherwise discard into our environment, just assuming it disappears miraculaously on its own.

Jeff, kinda interesting. Do you happen to know if the correlation was just an association too strong to ignore, or did it have follow-up causal implications? I wonder because we know that we can find all sorts of strong correlations among events that are related but unexplained.

The establishment media is really something to watch. It clearly tries to gain relevance and importance by keeping one anxious at every tun. Everything in our enviroment is hazardous. Including us. The hazard du jour is part of every special broadcast, and the bigger the hoax the more coverage it gets ("climate change", anybody?). Never mind the real hazard to one's health is driving a car and eating peanut butter.

Keratin is a potent inflammatory agent. At least one resource says that the majority component of 'house dust' is exfoliated skin.

So I wonder: what could be the (short term and long term) effects of breathing particles of hair (and other skin adnexia) on our cardiopulmonary systems? Immune system?

I wonder about this, particularly in the light of the association of filaggrin-asthma and filaggrin-nickel reactivity/dermatitis.

But then again, after having spent 33 years in diagnostics, and research, I have other things that I want to do today.

[artificer]

I formerly had a colleague doing asthma research who made a direct correlation between frequency and severity of asthma in children with the microparticles of synthetic rubber that are the result of automotive tire wear. Huge study with multivariable analysis. Since smoking has diminished and coal mining hygiene has been improved this is considered the most common cause (pathologically proven) of black lung disease among city dwellers. Besides causing slow progressive fibrosis of lung lining membranes it can set off significant low level chronic allergic reactions that cause the spastic and inflammatory changes of reactive airways disease (aka asthma). One of the reasons asthmatics are so concerned about pollution alerts. Amazing how we never think about what happens to stuff that we wear out or burn or otherwise discard into our environment, just assuming it disappears miraculaously on its own.

I used to live downtown in an old converted Victorian office block, right over a VERY busy street. I was constantly amazed and frightened by the black dust that would collect anywhere near an open window (or on anything that carried a static charge). It was as fine as ash, and godsforbid you ever got it wet- it would smear and turn into an ink-like substance.

Glad I moved.

ith:

[ForresterModern]

Jeff, kinda interesting. Do you happen to know if the correlation was just an association too strong to ignore, or did it have follow-up causal implications? I wonder because we know that we can find all sorts of strong correlations among events that are related but unexplained.

I remember the study as I was on the research advisory board who got to review data and study methodology at the time he was doing his studies (and for all I know may still be). Since it was multivariate a lot of factors were looked at as parts of "smog", includine CO, O3 (ozone), free carbon dust (from coal burning), hydrocarbons, HS2 and derivatives, Nitrogen deriviatives (typical pollution stuff), pollen and other organics, etc... in addition to the rubber microparticles. In this inner city study populatiion, although many other factors were seen to have intermittent but inconsistent effects, the one single factor that tracted consistently with the number and severity of asthmatic attacks in children was the relative amount of these rubber microparticles in the air samples obtained across the metro area (he even tracked different populations and sampled areas in the same metro area). When they were up kids in those areas had an increase in presentations to their pediatricians and local hospitals/clinics with asthmatic symptoms. Overall fascinating stuff, but unfortunately not something we can directly impact unless we significantly cut down automotive activity, or move to the country for cleaner air, which in many of the worst cases was indeed his recommendation.

[Ryan Ross]

I worked with them for 24 years at a national lab.

I'd say that lends a fair bit of credibility to your claim, personally.

[tundramanq]

Since the beginning we have been breathing in dust and smoke. Our lungs remove it using mucus to trap and the little hairs (name escapes me) in the bronchial passages to "pump" the solids and mucus out and down the gullet. As long a this system isn't disabled or overwealmed all is fine.
This is what causes chain smokers (I smoke ) problems as nicotine puts the hairs to sleep and it takes about ten minutes for them to start working again.

[ForresterModern]

Since the beginning we have been breathing in dust and smoke. Our lungs remove it using mucus to trap and the little hairs (name escapes me) in the bronchial passages to "pump" the solids and mucus out and down the gullet. As long a this system isn't disabled or overwealmed all is fine.
This is what causes chain smokers (I smoke ) problems as nicotine puts the hairs to sleep and it takes about ten minutes for them to start working again.

The hairs are called cilia, and the nicotine effects are not the only issues with inhaled cigarette smoke---tars and other pretty caustic chemicals, as well as the particulate ash of the smoke itself, pretty well poison a lot of the more delicate portions of the lung and airway lining causing it to turn from its normal mucus secreting protective type of cell to a non-mucous secreting non-ciliated variety (called metaplasia) that makes all the airways, small and large become slowly nonfunctional for clearing inhaled or native (mucous and inflammatory reactive cells) solids (something called chronic bronchitis). Never mind the destruction it acauses to the thin walls separating the actual air sacs/alveoli of the actual gas exchanging parts of the lungs, eventually causing emphysema. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are at two ends of a spectrum of acquired lung disease better known as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), the second worst non-cancerous ill effect of smoking after the advanced atherosclerosis it also causes. Cancer, well we won't go there.

j

[tundramanq]

Forrester - thanks for the rest of it - all I could really remember was the cilia thing.

I switched to Kirstan pipes about 15 years ago to reduce inhalation and limit how and when I smoke.

[ForresterModern]

Forrester - thanks for the rest of it - all I could really remember was the cilia thing.

I switched to Kirstan pipes about 15 years ago to reduce inhalation and limit how and when I smoke.

You are welcome. I lived and "breathed" this part of medicine for so many years during my training (I work exclusively with kids now so not as big an issue). Knowledge is a powerful thing, powerful enough that I have not smoked a cigarette since I was 19, or anything else legal or illegal since about 22. I could probably count the number of cigarettes I ever smoked on my fingers and the toes of one foot. Although I did endure second-hand smoke from my 2-3 pack-a-day smoking father until I left for college (late 70's), but he quit shortly thereafter. He is turning 82 next week and still going strong.

[Pleater]

the various supermarkets which have been making disintegrating carrier bags as part of their 'green' credentials have now decided to stop - which is great as I have had a real problem with carefully separating matching balls of yarn and then storing them together in large containers, only to discover that I have a container full of yarn and white flakes and a problem with identification.

The amount of small plastic debris of all sorts and sizes has been increasing for several decades - even though the manufacturers have been trying to deny the quantities collected on beaches around the UK. That is a separate issue from the plastic containers and items which do not fall apart with time.

That animals of all sizes are also ingesting the particles has also been known for some time, but no effort to minimise the quantity entering the environment seems to have been made, and very little investigation into the consequences seems to have been done.

Burning plastic is a recipe for disaster, and the only really effective system seems to be recycling - but so many things are not recyclable. It is a real dilemma.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: