Embedded Files
What Harm Can A Little Dust Cause?
What Harm Can A Little Dust Cause?
Silica exposure can cause autoimmune diseases such as lupus, scleroderma, and vasculitis.
It can also cause silicosis, kidney disease, lung cancer, tuberculosis, and other airways diseases.
Environmental exposure to silica can occur in workers and bystanders in many industries,
including agriculture construction, and potters.
Pneumoconiosis
Pneumoconiosis
What is Pneumoconiosis ?
Pneumoconiosis is one of a group of interstitial lung disease caused by breathing in certain kinds of dust particles that damage your lungs.
Because you are likely to encounter these dusts only in the workplace, pneumoconiosis is called an occupational lung disease.
Pneumoconiosis usually take years to develop. Because your lungs can't get rid of all these dust particles, they cause inflammation in your lungs that can eventually lead to scar tissue.
Depending upon the type of dust, the disease is given different names:
Coalworker's pneumoconiosis (also known as miner's lung, black lung or anthracosis) – coal, carbon
Aluminosis – Aluminium
Asbestosis – asbestos
Silicosis (also known as "grinder's disease" or Potter's rot, or when related to silica inhaled from the ash of an erupting volcano, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis) – crystalline silica dust
Bauxite fibrosis – bauxite
Berylliosis – beryllium
Siderosis – iron
Byssinosis – cotton
Silicosiderosis – mixed dust containing silica and iron
Labrador lung (found in miners in Labrador, Canada) – mixed dust containing iron, silica and anthophyllite, a type of asbestos
Stannosis – tin oxide
Talcosis – talc
Silicosis
What is silicosis?
Silicosis is a condition caused by inhaling too much silica over a long period of time.
Silica is a highly common, crystal-like mineral found in sand, rock, and quartz. Silica can have deadly consequences for people who work with stone, concrete, glass, or other forms of rock.
What causes silicosis?
Any level of silica exposure can result in silicosis. There are three types of silicosis:
acute
accelerated
chronic
Acute silicosis forms a few weeks or months after high levels of silica exposure. This condition progresses rapidly.
Accelerated silicosis comes on five to 10 years after exposure.
Chronic silicosis occurs 10 years or more after silica exposure. Even low exposure levels can cause chronic silicosis.
Silica dust particles act as tiny blades on the lungs. These particles create small cuts that can scar the lung tissue when inhaled through the nose or mouth. Scarred lungs do not open and close as well, making breathing more difficult
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
An obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language.
Silica exposure and altered regulation of autoimmunity
Silica exposure and altered regulation of autoimmunity
Patients with pneumoconiosis suffer not only with respiratory complications such as chronic bronchitis, emphysema and lung fibrosis, but also from autoimmune disorders in the case of silicosis patients and malignant tumors such as pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer in the case of asbestosis patients. The typical autoimmune disorders complicated with silicosis include rheumatoid arthritis (well known as Caplan syndrome) , systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) , systemic sclerosis (SSc) , and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-related vasculitis
Perhaps surprisingly, kidney disease emerges as perhaps a higher risk than either mortality from silicosis or lung cancer
These findings confirm that there is an exposure–response relationship between silica dust exposure and a heightened risk of death from respiratory diseases and lung cancer. That is, the risk of death from these diseases increases as exposure to silica dust increases.
In addition, they show a significant relationship between silica dust exposure and death from cardiovascular diseases.
Crystalline silica, which is carcinogenic, is a respiratory health hazard
Crystalline silica, which is carcinogenic, is a respiratory health hazard
Silica exposure can cause pulmonary and extrapulmonary (e.g., spleen, liver, lymph nodes, and retroperitoneum) nodules, alveolar proteinosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial fibrosis, lung cancer, and pleural disease (inflammation, effusion, and/or fibrosis).
Silica exposure is also thought to increase the risk for tuberculosis
Find out more visit the Danger Dust Disease Blog @ Wordpress.com
The key to preventing silica related disease is to keep dust out of the air.
The key to preventing silica related disease is to keep dust out of the air.
When working with silica, take the following precautions to protect yourself and others.
Use all available work practices—water sprays, ventilation systems and blasting cabinets—to control dust exposures.
Always wear proper personal protective equipment.
Wear disposable or washable work clothes and shower if facilities are available. Vacuum the dust from your clothes or change into clean clothing before leaving the worksite.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse