[Pulmonary fibrosis due to working with hard metals (author's transl)].

Hard metals are worked with in numerous small industries. Thus hard metal fibroses are probably more frequent than has been supposed up to now. Observations on three patients have shown that a dry cough may preceed demonstrable manifestations by several months. As the full picture of the disease is hard to influence therapeutically an immediate change of job should be encouraged as soon as suspicious symptoms occur.