Dust pneumonia describes disorders caused by excessive exposure to dust storms, particularly during the Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...

 in the United States. A form of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

, dust pneumonia results when the lungs are filled with dust

Dust

Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that arise from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind , volcanic eruptions, and pollution...

, inflaming the alveoli. The dust pneumonia was featured in the work of several musicians and artists of the day, such as Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...

's song "Dust Pneumonia Blues".

Symptoms of dust pneumonia include high fever

Fever

Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

, chest pain

Chest pain

Chest pain may be a symptom of a number of serious conditions and is generally considered a medical emergency. Even though it may be determined that the pain is non-cardiac in origin, this is often a diagnosis of exclusion made after ruling out more serious causes of the pain.-Differential...

, difficulty in breathing

Dyspnea

Dyspnea , shortness of breath , or air hunger, is the subjective symptom of breathlessness.It is a normal symptom of heavy exertion but becomes pathological if it occurs in unexpected situations...

, and coughing. People who had dust pneumonia often died. There are no official death rates published for the Great Plains

Great Plains

The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...

 in the 1930s, but Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

 volunteers made and distributed thousands of dust masks. The Kansas State Board of Health reported that in April 1935, 17 people had already died from dust pneumonia. With dust pneumonia, dust settles all the way into the alveoli of the lungs, stopping the cilia

Cilium

A cilium is an organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Cilia are slender protuberances that project from the much larger cell body....

from moving and preventing the lungs from ever clearing themselves.