Music teachers have a responsibility to give detailed instruction on the regular cleaning of brass and wind instruments because of new, compelling research. Recent findings reinforce the importance of teaching proper instrument cleaning. Serious health consequences can be avoided by making instrument care an integral part of the educative process. Recent studies in France, Belgium, and the United States, including the University of Connecticut Health Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, Texas, found a correlation between brass and wind playing and "hypersensitivity pneumonitis," a medical term for inflammation of lung tissue. The disease is serious but treatable. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis can lead to interstitial lung disease, an irreversible condition, indicating that one's illness has progressed from inflammation to scarring. The author recommends isopropyl alcohol, an effective and inexpensive product, or ethylene oxide, also highly effective but more expensive, as useful cleaning products for brass and wind instruments. Cleaning requires diligence, user knowledge, frequent reminders, and insistence that instructions be heeded. In this article, the author discusses proper cleaning techniques. (Contains 4 notes.)