Silicosis
In India, countless workers engaged in mines, construction and factories are silently dying of exposure to dust. This is better referred to as silicosis. Silicosis can be described as an occupational disease or hazard due to dust exposure. It is incurable and can cause permanent disability. However, it is totally preventable by available control measures and technology.
About Silicosis::
>>Silicosis occurs most commonly in
people working in the quarrying, manufacturing, and building construction
industries.
>>Silica (SiO2/silicon dioxide) is
a crystal-like mineral found in abundance in sand, rock, and quartz.
>>It is a progressive lung disease
caused by the inhalation of silica over a long period of time, characterized by
shortness of breath, cough, fever and bluish skin.
>>It is one of the most prevalent
occupational health illnesses in the world. It is also reported from the
population with non-occupational exposure to silica dust from industrial as
well as non-industrial sources.
>>Exposure to large amounts of free
silica may not be noticed because silica is odourless, non-irritant and does
not cause any immediate health effects, but long-term exposure is associated
with pneumoconiosis, lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, and other lung
diseases.
>>Pneumoconiosis is one of a group
of interstitial lung diseases caused by breathing in certain kinds of dust
particles that damage your lungs.
>>Diagnosis is a challenge because
it is difficult to even find out if a person has tuberculosis or silicosis.
>>The nodules that collect to form
a mass can take up to 20 years to be identified in chest x-rays and the victim
notices symptoms only after many years of exposure to silica.
>>Grossly, silicotic nodules are
firm, discrete, rounded lesions that contain a variable amount of black
pigment.
>>The nodules tend to occur around
respiratory bronchioles and small pulmonary arteries.
>>In India silicosis is prevalent
in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Pondicherry, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal among the workers of
construction and mining.
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