Abstract

It has been established that an ususual and widespread outbreak of cough and dyspnoea occured among weavers of viscose yarn, in which tamarind seed kernal powder had been used as a sizing agent. The condition appeared to be a reaction to a constituent of the size.
The preservatives (fungicides) are unlikely to have been responsible. They were originally suspected by the importers and were left out of subsequent deliveries, without any apparent change in effect. A fungus or other organism is also unlikely to have been the activating agent, as fungicides were present in the material which first produced symptoms and no undue concentration of fungae was detected in the atmosphere of the weaving shed.

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Comments

The workers reported would now be diagnosed as having occupational asthma. The shortest latency was 2 weeks from the introduction of the tamarind seed size. Symptoms improving within a few days away from work and recurring within hours of return were characteristic. Patch and scratch tests to tamaind seed fractions "were inconclusive". Sickness absence due to cough and/or breathlessness occured in 103/335 (31%) exposed and 2/53(4%) unexposed. Later studies in Italy identified positive prick tests to tamarind seed extracts in similar situations.

4/18/2008