The two most essential items of equipment for anybody taking up pigeon racing or anyone already established in the sport are a Mask and Trailer. Why? Well just to ensure you live long enough to enjoy your pigeons. I can hear cries coming from the back and tales of how "I've been involved in pigeon racing for the past 150 years and every morning before breakfast I've taken them out for 3 twenty mile tosses carrying the baskets on my back and then got back to do a full days work before nightfall without any damned trailer or mask." Well gentlemen, if that's you, all I can say is congratulations and well done but of course its not you that I am really appealing to.

What concerns me is the crowd of flyers who do not join in your chorus of condemnation because they cant draw enough breath to speak, what concerns me is the sale after sale advertised by people leaving the sport because of pigeon lung, what concerns me is the number of flyers who have already passed on, prematurely, because of lung disease and heart attacks brought on by our sport. Make no mistake PIGEON RACING CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH but, by the same token, pigeon racing NEED NOT BE A DANGER to anyone.

Pigeon lung
As I hope you all know Pigeon Fanciers Lung (PFL), a form of Extrinsic Allergic Alveolitis (EAA), is an allergic reaction to pigeon protein. But what exactly does that mean? Well let's start at the beginning. We have to breath to live. We have to breath because we have to supply oxygen to our blood. We have to supply oxygen to our blood so that it can carry it to all the various parts of our body that cannot function without it.

If our brain, for example, is denied oxygen for only a few seconds it will suffer damage that cannot be repaired and if this lack of oxygen continues for only a short time longer the brain will cease to function altogether. Many of you may think that this is a normal state for pigeon fanciers and though I accept that the symptoms may be similar the conditions are very different. How then does oxygen get into the blood? We breath in air, which contains the oxygen, through our mouth and preferably through our nose. Why preferably through our nose? Because here we have the first line of defence, that the body has created, against unwanted intrusions to our system. The tiny hairs lining the nose filter the air we breath and prevent some of the dust and other particles entering our bodies. There will be a lot more to say about dust and filtering later. The air we breath is carried down a tube called the trachea into the chest. Inside the chest that tube branches into two smaller tubes, the bronchi, which carry the air into the lungs where it continues to pass through a series of tubes, the bronchioles. They continue branching into smaller and smaller tubes until each ends in a tiny air sac, the alveoli, a minute ball smaller than a pin point so small you cannot see one with the naked eye and yet, as each adult has over 300 million alveoli in their lungs, if you could lay them all out flat they would cover the size of a tennis court. It is this mass of tubes and tiny air sacs that gives lungs their spongy feel.

While air is passing through these tubes blood, hopefully, is being pumped through a similar tube system. A system so large that if all the tubes were laid out end to end they would extend for over 100,000 miles. It starts out in the large arteries leaving the heart and is pushed along continually branching and diminishing sized tubes until eventually it reaches very fine hair like vessels, the capillaries. Capillaries are spread all over the body and it is here that the oxygen passes through their very thin walls into the body parts that need it. Just as oxygen is passed over to the body so Carbon Dioxide, a waste product created when the body uses oxygen, is passed back to the blood which carries it back to the heart. We tend to think of our heart as a pump but really of course it is two pumps serving two separate systems.

The largest of these pushes blood round the body distributing oxygen and collecting carbon dioxide while the smaller works on a much shorter but equally important journey carrying that carbon dioxide to the lungs and bringing oxygen back to the heart. It is in the lungs that the blood, now in capillaries, comes alongside alveoli. Oxygen, from the breathed in air, passes through the walls of the alveoli into the blood and carbon dioxide is passed back. The oxygen enriched blood is carried to the heart to be pumped round the body while the carbon dioxide returns through the bronchioles to be breathed out. During this process, even while the body is at rest, about 8-10 pints of blood are pumped by the heart each minute and about 12 pints of air exchanged. When the body is working hard these volumes rise dramatically. So, even in relaxed times, the body requires a lot of air, demands a lot of oxygen and needs a lot of blood to carry it round.

How do pigeons affect these systems?
I started by stating that PFL is caused by an allergic reaction to pigeon protein. At the mention of protein we think of food proteins but there are many, many proteins which carry out an enormous range of tasks in the body. The human body has over 30,000 types of protein working in a whole variety of ways. The pigeon protein, that is concerned here, is carried mainly in pigeon bloom, droppings and other dusts. You will all know of pigeon bloom and will have seen clouds of dust coming from your pigeons when they shake and groom themselves. You see the bloom because you are looking at thousands upon thousands of particles together with pieces of dead skin and other debris but the particles of bloom themselves are very small so small that you cannot see one on its own. Each particle is less than 5 microns and a micron is just 1/1,000th of a millimetre. So it is here in the bloom, mainly, that we get the harmful protein. It is not difficult to see that when you are in the vicinity of your pigeons, in the loft, at a show or sale or anywhere in close proximity you will be breathing in these tiny particles of dust. Even if you breath through your nose particles this small will pass through the natural filter system and find their way into your lungs and the alveoli. It is here of course that the damage is done. The body has many complex systems for protecting itself from external harm and often it is the effects of this protective action that we find uncomfortable. A boil is really the bodies reaction to something it finds harmful. Blood is rushed to the site and literally fights a battle with the infection. In the process many blood cells are sacrificed to fight off the danger and this is what causes the swelling and in turn the discomfort. In a similar way when the pigeon protein reaches the alveoli they react against it. It is a little more complicated than this and I think it is right to say that nobody at this stage knows all the answers but research continues and knowledge grows by the hour. With PFL we are talking about the specific reaction of the body to pigeon protein, I will deal with this in a little more detail later, but it does not take a genius to realise that if pigeon protein can find its way to the lungs and the alveoli then so can many other forms of dust and particles. There are of course as many lung diseases as there are forms of dust. You will all have heard of farmers lung and miners lung and many others together with the dangers of asbestos. Each one has its dangers, some more acute than others, but all damaging all dangerous. Then of course is the most wide spread of all, the activity whose sole object it would seem is to get as much damaging material into the lungs as possible, smoking. If you just think for a minute about the size of the alveoli and the function they perform you will realise just how important they are to your health and fitness and how easy it must be to damage them, block them or otherwise impede their work. Some of you might think that as you have over 300 million alveoli it should be possible to do without some of them. This reminds me of the young boy who's parents wanted to stop him masturbating so they told him if he continued it would make him go blind. He wanted to know if he could do it a little and wear spectacles. Well of course things don't work out quite like that. I said before that PFL is not quite as simple as dust causing inflammation to the alveoli. What actually happens is that the body becomes sensitised to pigeon protein. It is when the body is sensitised that you get an adverse reaction on exposure. What this means in effect is that you are unlikely to feel ill on your first exposure to pigeon protein and of course many people never become affected by it. What it also means is that over a period of time and over a period of exposure, sometimes many years, you gradually become sensitised to it and the condition gradually creeps up on you. There are estimates that 6% to 22% of flyers have symptoms following exposure to pigeons while a British Pigeon Fanciers survey suggests that 16% show the symptoms but 31% are sensitised. As I said earlier with PFL we are speaking specifically about the reaction to pigeon protein because often tests will tell people that they do not have pigeon lung allergy when they themselves think they have and show some of the symptoms. They may not have the allergy but of course they do have something that is not helping them with their health. So while pigeon protein is the thing we are concerned with in PFL anything we breath in can be harmful. Just look at the amount of dirt and dust that builds up in and around a loft. That's dust from the pigeons, from the corn and from the nest bowls all flying around in the air, beaten up by flapping wings, driven round by ventilation systems and breathed in by us all.

How do we know we have PFL?
We only really know that we have PFL when we have a blood test which tells us we have. This test will tell us if we have raised levels of reaction to pigeon protein because everyone is likely to produce an anti body reaction but some will produce a greater reaction than others. So what should we look out for in deciding whether we should take a blood test? Generally the first signs are feelings of a flu like illness starting a few hours after being in contact with pigeons. This can take the form of feverishness, dry cough, headaches, aching joints, sweating, exhaustion and shortness of breath or breathlessness. There can also be weight loss over time and for those who are very sensitive the reaction time can be much quicker. If you are feeling any of these symptoms either individually or in any combination then you should seek medical advice and take a blood test.

There are two reassuring facts:
1. You cannot catch PFL from anybody else or pass it on to anybody else. You can only get it by coming into contact with Pigeon Protein.
2. PFL is not fatal as long as it is identified and treated and proper precautions are taken. It can however cause permanent changes to the lungs and chronic ill health if it is not treated or just ignored.

How do we avoid PFL?
It would be simple to say that the only sure fire way to avoid PFL is to avoid Pigeon Protein. This in turn means avoiding Pigeons. To some, who are highly sensitised or who have already become very ill this may be the only choice. For the vast majority of people this is really not necessary. PFL is of course only part of the story so in setting out to avoid PFL we should also seek to avoid all lung disease and damage. If the damage is caused by dust and debris, which it is, then we must find WAYS of dealing with dust and debris. I say ways because to deal with it properly you need a raft of precautions as there is no one single answer to it all. The first thing to consider is the way you keep the pigeons. It has become fashionable, and many who are successful will say essential, to have closed in lofts. I don't think there is a problem with closed in lofts except that they must have good and adequate ventilation. Now much has been written about ventilation, really from the pigeons point of view, and that is good for them may or may not be good for you but some of the best advice comes from Steven van Bremen's "Space Age Ventilation" which I am sure you are all familiar with. I am not going to go into the detail of it here except to say that it describes the removal of air, and with it a large amount of dust and debris, by use of a mechanised extractor fan system. It is actually quite cheap, quite simple, very effective and should be a top priority with all who have closed lofts. There are alternatives to closed in lofts. I saw just a little while ago lofts in Germany where the whole of the front was open to the elements covered only by wire mesh to keep out vermin and intruders and a fine woven plastic mesh to keep out the worst of weather. Air and dust flowed freely. There are all sorts of more traditional lofts which offer a greater flow of air and finally there is the rabbit hutch concept so ably illustrated by Keith Mott in his article first published in the British Homing World (Vol. 73. No: 6470 Jan 7th 2000 Page 22) again I will not go into detail except to say it is a system that relies on large nest boxes, resembling rabbit hutches, that are kept in tiers out in the open without any other enclosure. The object, from the fanciers health point of view, in any system must be to produce an atmosphere that is as free from dust as possible.

Personal protection
Having created a dust free environment in the loft the next thing to consider is how you can protect yourself whilst with the pigeons. This is really very simple you just have to take notice of the advice that has been on offer for a very long time now - ALWAYS WEAR A MASK, CAP, AND GOWN and even GOGGLES when in the loft, at shows or marking. This may seem to you to be a great inconvenience and totally unnecessary because you feel no ill effects from the pigeons but one of the main problems with this disease is that it creeps up on you over time. For a long while, perhaps years, you think you are OK but all the time your lungs are undergoing change and then one day you realise just how bad you are. By this time of course things can be quite bad. The real stupidity is that all the time it was preventable by ALWAYS WEARING A MASK, CAP, AND GOWN.

Masks
There are several excellent masks. I have tried three myself over the years which I will mention here but any mask that conforms with European Standards EN149:1991 or 2001 for disposable masks or EN143:2000 for reusable filter masks, or equivalent standards in other part of the world, is acceptable. There are two vitally important considerations with any mask. The first is that it provides a good fit to the face so that you are not breathing in air that does not pass through the filters and secondly the effectiveness of the filters. You will remember just how small pigeon protein is and many masks will not provide the stringent level of filtering required. The final thing I want to say here about masks in general is be prepared to be totally horrified by the volume of dirt and debris that gets deposited on the filters in a very short time. All of that would have ended up in your lungs. If you have any doubts about wearing a mask now I can assure you they will disappear once you start. The first two masks I have used are both made by MOLDEX which is an international company meaning you should be able to obtain its products any where in the world.

Moldex 2405.

This is a simple lightweight face mask that you throw away after a period of use. This mask has been available on special offer through the British Homing World for some time now and is quite popular. It provides you with adequate protection from pigeon protein and is quite comfortable to wear. You can mould the mask to your face and breath air through most of the masks surface, which acts as the filter, while in the centre is a small rubber one way valve flap, a Ventex®-Valve, that enables you to breath out easily. This mask is quite adequate but it is especially useful to carry around with you to shows, when visiting lofts or marking stations etc. It is so small and light that you can just tuck it in a pocket and hardly notice it.

Moldex 4000.

Moving up the scale we come to a much more substantial mask and it is this sort of mask that I think every pigeon fancier should think of as his basic piece of kit. I found this to be a really first rate product which is very well made and easy to clean and maintain. It comes in three sizes to fit correctly any shape face and head and it has a range of replaceable filters. In this case you keep the mask and throw away the filters after a period of use. The filter level needed to protect against pigeon protein is P2 or above. It is of course dearer to purchase than the 2405 masks but over time it is likely to work out more economic.

Aircap 2.

The last mask which I have tried is the Aircap 2. One of the drawbacks with a conventional mask is that you know you are wearing a mask. It requires more effort to breath, you have something covering your mouth and nose which is not always pleasant and you can have problems with spectacles misting and so on. The Aircap does away with all that and instead you have a steady stream of filtered air pushed down over your face from a small fan mounted in the peak of a baseball cap. There is a full face visor so you have good vision, you can speak and be heard and you have no discomfort. It is light on the head and incorporates a cap. The only slight drawback I have found is noise from the fan, but truthfully this is quite minor. The cost is appreciably higher but you have to pay for your comforts.

Cap and gown
Normally you only get a cap and gown when you graduate from university but if you are going to graduate as a pigeon flyer you need them when you start. There is no need for any great fashion, trend or expense. The object is to wear something covering your head and normal clothes when you are with the pigeons that you leave with the pigeons so that you do not carry pigeon protein into the house or to other people. I said earlier that you cannot catch PFL from anybody else or give PFL to anybody else and that is true but you can carry the very thing that will give others PFL so make sure you leave it in the loft. There have been instances where wives of pigeon flyers have contracted PFL, no not from cleaning the pigeons out but simply by sleeping with the old man. Snuggled up warm and tight, feeling safe and sound in the night but all the time breathing in pigeon protein from his hair. Its not just wives of course, you have to consider the girlfriend as well.

Why do I need a trailer?
There is little point in going to all the trouble of a dust free loft and ALWAYS WEARING A MASK, CAP AND GOWN if you are going to transport pigeons in your car. Even in the biggest cars you have a very limited volume of air and if you are going to put pigeons in there the protein will soon pervade the entire atmosphere. It will still be in the car when the pigeons have been taken out so everyone using the car will breath that air friends, children, grandchildren. Once again whilst you cannot give PFL to anybody else you can ensure they are exposed to pigeon protein by having pigeons in your car. No they are not going to fall over after one trip but don't risk their health. Adopt the simple principal and do not carry pigeons in your car. Save your life and theirs get a trailer.

An update
Since this article was first published I have received several telephone calls about pigeon lung which makes it clear to me that there are things that need to be clarified, probably enough to write a book about this disease alone. Two quick points to begin, I am not medically qualified and I don't sell masks. I say this because I do not want anybody to get the wrong impression. I am more than happy to explain to anybody at anytime what I know but if you need an expert opinion about your condition or treatment you must go to your Doctor. Equally I do not sell masks or stand to gain from their sale in any way. I would just like to see you all wearing a mask because it is in your interest to do so.

AIRCAP 2
This section is my unashamed tribute to the AIRCAP 2. As stated above I have tried three masks and the first I tried where the MOLDEX 2405 and MOLDEX 4000 in that order. I have nothing bad to say about either. They are both very good masks that do a first rate job and that is the most important issue. So please if you prefer them or can only afford them, use them, they are excellent and you will be protected. I have now used the AIRCAP 2 for about a year. I cannot give you facts and figures about its efficiency, I am not qualified to do so, I can only tell you about my experience with it. It really is almost a pleasure to use. The problem with a mask is that it is a mask. You always know you have it on, you have to have it tight to your face to make a seal and you have to work harder to breath in. This may sound silly, but if you are already short of breath, as many of you are, you will notice that little extra effort you have to make to draw air through the filters. A mask is never really comfortable it either tickles your face or you get a build up of condensation inside which can get irritating. If you wear spectacles there is always the problem of them steaming up whatever you do, very often you find people only sort of half wear the mask. I spoke with someone just the other day and when I asked if he wore a mask he replied " Yes, on my forehead." so often the way. With AIRCAP 2 none of this applies. The reason is that is a totally different concept. First and foremost it does not have to fit tight to your face. Instead you wear a baseball cap with a full face visor that sits about an inch in front of your face. So there is none of the facial discomfort. The air you breath has already been drawn through filters for you by a fan sitting on the peak of the cap, so you have no extra effort. That filtered air is pushed gently down over your face by that same fan, which in summer can be quite refreshing. This also keeps spectacles from steaming up and you get no build up of condensation. Yes you do get some condensation at the bottom of the visor but it is not in your vision and it can fall from the visor without impeding you, so you hardly ever notice it. It is the action of this air being pushed down over your face that prevents contaminated air coming up into the visor and so keeps you safe. The final real advantage is that you can speak and be heard so that you can carry on a conversation in company or over the telephone with the mask in place. Today I hardly notice that I am wearing the mask as I carry out the full range of jobs about the loft from feeding to cleaning and even repairs. I think it is excellent and I recommend it to you all.

Mask, Cap and Gown
The whole point of this article is to say that everybody, when involved with pigeons, should wear a Mask, Cap and Gown. Its no good waiting until your lungs are damaged. Start wearing a Mask, Cap and Gown today and you will probably never get lung damage anyway. If you start wearing a Mask, Cap and Gown from the day you start with pigeons you will almost certainly not get lung damage. I had one call from a man who has lung problems. He wears a Mask, Cap and Gown now but he has damage already. Because of his problems his wife is helping him by cleaning the pigeons, a very nice thing to do, but she is not wearing a mask. Please, please, please if you want to play about with your health that is a matter for you but do not encourage others to risk theirs.

Smokers and Pigeon Lung
Now it is often said, normally by those who smoke, that smokers do not get Pigeon Lung. This is not strictly true. There is some evidence to show that there is a lower incidence of Pigeon Lung amongst smokers. Normally when you see the term "some evidence" in scientific papers it means that there has been no proper research into the subject but it is something noticed from research into other things. It would be unwise therefore to read to much into this. I will give you my explanation, but you must remember it is only my opinion, which is that smokers are doing such great damage to their lungs already, by smoking, that the effects of Pigeon Lung are not so noticeable. By smoking you are killing yourself, slowly perhaps, but surely nevertheless so STOP SMOKING and wear a Mask, Cap and Gown when with your pigeons and give yourself a chance.

Can the damage to your lungs heal.
There is no simple answer to this because it depends on what damage, how much and so on. There is a very general rule though. Damage to your lungs is irreversible. I told one caller that since wearing a mask my lungs had improved, which surprised him because he thought that lung damage could not be repaired. He was right of course. There is a subtle difference between permanent damage and, for want of a better term, temporary inflammation occurring before permanent damage is done. When you give up smoking or when you start to wear a mask, having had some breathing problems, any temporary inflammation is likely to subside and you will almost certainly have improved breathing. The benefit may only be small but I can assure you it will be worth it. You will not get back you full lung capacity, which even with healthy undamaged lungs deteriorates considerably with age, because any permanent damage cannot repair.

To conclude
I would like to thank Dr. Gavin Boyd, and all members of the British Pigeon Fanciers Medical Research Team www.pigeon-lung.co.uk for all the work they have done and continue to do on our behalf researching into this disease. Much of the information in this article is taken from their work and their advice. If you feel you have a problem with the disease I quote advice from the team below: Go and see your own Doctor. The blood test (10ml. of clotted blood) helps to confirm the suspicion about the condition if you have it. Blood samples can be sent to them directly - contact details

I would also like to thank Yale University School of Medicine for allowing the use of their graphics of the lungs and alveoli, showing you just what they look like, together with Moldex for pictures of the 2405 and 4000 masks and Bradwest Safety Co. Ltd. for the picture of the Aircap2 mask.

The final word

Whoever you are, wherever you are ALWAYS WEAR A MASK, CAP, AND GOWN and even GOGGLES when in the loft, at shows, marking or anywhere near pigeons.

Nigel Lane, www.nigellane.com