Don't Inhale Phony Snow

Posting Date: 03/22/1999

In movies, the rain and snow might look real - but they?re not. They?re artificial, the result of special effects.

I bring this up because of a moviemaking malady reported by a physician in Panorama City, Calif. The case involved a special-effects coordinator who had a chronic cough and allergy symptoms.

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It seems the 37-year-old nonsmoking man had been working on a movie set where they had been using artificial snow, a substance composed of polyethylene fibers. After two days of exposure, he began wheezing, couldn't sleep and developed a postnasal drip.

Various allergy medications were tried, along with cough suppressants, but the symptoms remained. Finally, the patient was given a bronchoscopy, which revealed white pellets of polyethelene fibers ? artificial snow ? in his lungs. He had inhaled the stuff.

A bronchial cleansing took care of the problem, but the case illustrates the importance of looking into a person?s recent history when faced with unusual nagging symptoms.

The other lesson is simple ? don?t inhale phony snow.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine, March 18, 1999