Brown Lung

Millhands had a name for it long before regulators did: brown lung. Byssinosis, caused by breathing the fine dust released as cotton is opened, carded, and spun, first appears as tightness in the chest on Mondays or other days after time away from work, and can progress to permanent, disabling loss of lung function. In 1978 federal regulators estimated that at least 35,000 current and retired cotton mill workers, about one in twelve, suffered from its most disabling form, and that 100,000 had some form of the disease. In late 1974 and 1975, organizers led by Mike Szpak, working with retired and disabled millhands, built the Carolina Brown Lung Association, beginning in Columbia, South Carolina. Its chapters ran breathing-test clinics, filed workers' compensation claims against companies including J.P. Stevens, Burlington, and Cone Mills, and lobbied for federal action. On June 23, 1978, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cut the permissible exposure limit for cotton dust from 1,000 to 200 micrograms per cubic meter of air in yarn manufacturing, with a limit of 750 in slashing and weaving. The industry sued, arguing that OSHA had to weigh costs against benefits. In American Textile Manufacturers Institute v. Donovan, decided June 17, 1981, the Supreme Court ruled 5–3, in an opinion by Justice William Brennan, that the law required only that a standard be feasible: Congress itself had placed worker health above all considerations except feasibility.