Just a little under two weeks ago, Philadelphia area hospitals began admitting an inordinate number of patients experiencing severe coughing and burning of the lungs.
Doctors first blamed the city’s numerous oil refineries then looked to the Swine flu, but quickly ruled these diagnoses out after other symptoms—fever, sweating and vomiting—were not evident in any of the ill.
Doctors took several days to determine a link between the thousands of patients experiencing similar symptoms and all arriving at hospitals within hours of each other.
“Many were wearing Phillies gear when they arrived,” said Dr Gale Strommers, a respiratory doctor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. “We originally thought it was too much tailgating. But cough samples all revealed white and red cloth fibers.”
Enough fibers were removed from the patients’ phlegm samples that a pattern soon developed. The fibers spelled out “Fightin’ Phils.” Apparently, Philadelphia Phillies' rally towels were the cause, but why were fans eating rally towels? They weren’t, at least, not consciously.
The towels are part of the team’s effort to unite the crowd for late season and playoff games. When fans wave the China-made rally towels, hundreds of trillions of tiny, and some large, pieces of lint begin to dislodge and float freely in the air around the seating area of Citizens Bank Park. Cheering fans, often breathing at a higher rate from game excitement, begin to take in large quantities of the lint.
“Lint from one or two towels wouldn’t make a difference,” said Dr Harrold Patterson, a professor at Drexel University’s School of Medicine. “Lint from 50,000 towels, however, can have serious medical consequences for those exposed.”
Experts agree that though the lint appears to float weightless in the air, it is slowly descending toward the stadium’s first level. Therefore, fans sitting in these areas are considered to be at a greater risk. Hospitals have confirmed that most of the admitted patients were ticket holders from the first level.
Some fans feel shortness of breath, burning lungs, diarrhea and blurry vision is a small price to pay for a run at the World Series.
"The doctor has ... forbade me from ... attending games for the rest ... of this year," said Phillies fan Frank Donegal, 19, in between deep breaths. "Plus, this ... oxygen tank ... is very ... cumbersome."
The elements can also play a factor on the “towel effects.” On game days with rain and wind—speeds greater than 7 mph—the number of patients admitted into area hospitals plummeted. Wind would quickly carry the fibers away from seating areas and away from the stadium. On these days, however, more fans claiming to only have been in the stadium's parking lots and not entering the stadium had more reports of the illness.
The team will distribute disposable breathing masks along with the rally towels for all of the World Series games at Citizens Bank Park.
Notes: The Phillies will give out Frightnin’ Phils rally towels on Halloween night. The towels will have a wacky, scary theme with Phillies colors. "It'll be wacky and frightnin'," said a Phillies representative.
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