Every fall I use to get some kind of chest colds. Usually it took a month before it cleared away. The fall of -03 was the worst for me. So I went to a pulmonary doctor early last fall to see if anything could be done before I again got this weird chest cold.
To make a long story short with untolds tests, the culprit was simply my exposure to the sulfites while cleaning, scrubbing and sanitizing bottles etc. The cure was simply to protect myself and found protection via a mask from 3M 8576, looks like a dust mask but have a built in filter material that expel organic vapor as from sulfites.
Grainger's sell them #4mh58, I spent over a thousand dollars finding this out. Here it is for free in hopes it can help anyone else that might run into this problem.
Even after being in a large room with a window partly opened, I remember still having a stinging feeling the end of day from all the sulfite. Nowdays I also wear disposable gloves, to expel any skin absorbent.
I always though that a little whiffs of this and that never had much impact but as one get older I guess our body changes. My doctor also told me that an irritation from exposure to a specific chemical could take form of a host of different symptoms, rashes, blured vision, cramps, breathing problems etc.
Needles to say last fall I didn't get any strange chest colds or other symptoms while using the above protection during sanitation and I bottle the most I ever done.
SG Brix