Glass bottle workers have been shown to experience an excess of respiratory symptoms. This work describes in detail the symptoms reported by a cohort of 69 symptomatic glass bottle workers. Symptoms, employment history and clinical investigations including radiology, spirometry and serial peak expiratory flow rate records were retrospectively analyzed from clinical records. The results showed a consistent syndrome of work-related eye, nose and throat irriation followed after a veriable period by shortness of breath. The latent interval between starting work and first developing symptoms was typically 4 years (median=4 years: range=0-28). The interval preceding the development of dyspnoea was longer and much more variable (median=16 years: range=3-40).