Silicosis
Silicosis is a disease that is caused by small particles of silica (glass) getting trapped in the lungs. When people have silicosis, the changes in their body often are cyanosis (when skin goes a blueish color), a fever, when the body gets hotter or being not able to breathe properly. Sometimes doctors do not realize that someone has silicosis, and think that they have other illnesses like pneumonia, tuberculosis or fluid in the lungs.
It was first noticed in 1705 by Bernardino Ramazzini (an Italian doctor). He saw something that looked like sand in the lungs of stonecutters. The name silicosis is from Visconti in 1870. The name comes from the Latin silex which means flint.
Silicosis Media
Miner's lung with silicosis and tuberculosis (Basque Museum of the History of Medicine and Science, Spain)
A video discussing a field-based approach to silica monitoring. Monitoring could help reduce exposure to silica.
Workers in a cloud of concrete dust containing respirable crystalline silica with no controls in place
Chest X-ray showing uncomplicated silicosis
Silicosis ILO Classification 2-2 R-R
Fibrothorax and pleural effusion caused by silicosis
.png)
Related pages
Other websites
- "Preventing Silicosis" (not simple English)