Silicosis – Health Effects

Silicosis is still a major carcinogen in the workplace. However, it is completely avoidable if simple precautions are taken in the workplace and workers are made aware of the dangers of inhaling silica dust. Inhaling silica dust even for short periods of time can lead to serious health problems. These are not limited to silicosis and include: bronchitis, tuberculosis and even lung cancer. Silicosis is untreatable and irreversible and its effects cannot be stopped even after workers are no longer exposed to silica dust.

People working in construction, shipbuilding and mining are most prone to develop silicosis. However, of these, sandblasters have the highest incidence of silicosis and more than 10 per cent of all workers involved with this develop silicosis. Abrasive blasting with silica sand - normally used to prepare surfaces for painting or stripping paint - has a 200 times higher level of exposure to silica dust than is recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Heath in the United States.

The effects of silicosis can be mild to severe; ranging from shortness of breath, loss of appetite, fever and, in the worst cases, tuberculosis, emphysema, lung fibrosis, lung cancer and even heart failure. For the employer, it is prudent to help avoid its workers from being exposed to silica dust. Simple precautions like good ventilation, face masks and controlling of dust can at least limit or completely avoid workers inhaling silica dust. Since the silicosis is incurable and, once contracted, irreversible, the long-term cost to health insurance and Worker’s Compensation is enormous.

Although the time scale between exposure and symptoms can be several years, cases have been brought against employers or former employers for negligence in preventing this disease. If you feel that you have contracted silicosis as a result of unreasonable exposure to dust, or as a result of a company’s failure to take proper precautions and warn its employees on correct safety procedure, you may have a case against them for compensation.