Organizing the Breathless

In this solid study, the author anatomizes the mid-1970s movement to fight byssinosis (``brown lung''), associated with cotton dust exposure in Southern mill towns. Botsch, who teaches political science at the University of South Carolina, examines the Southern socio-political context and the workplace safety movement before describing how activists, spurred by Ralph Nader, organized Brown Lung Association chapters in 1975. Helping sufferers with workers' compensation cases, establishing clinics, prompting media attention and lobbying mill owners, the Association nevertheless had trouble attracting active workers, who mainly sought to change their jobs. In 1981, faced with the loss of federal and charitable funding and audited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the group's ranks and influence significantly declined. Botsch cites the lack of unionization, the Southern culture of individualism, leadership domination by outside staffers and the Reagan-era cutoff of funds as factors in the Association's demise. Illustrations not seen by PW. (June)