Sand, foundry workers

Rodnan et al. 36 SSc, 8 with silicosis 26 Coal miners, 10 foundry workers Silica dust (coal miners), quartz sand (foundry workers)... 

C Foundry workers Foundry sands Silica crystals Suspended dusts Inhalation... 

Silicosis is the oldest known occupational lung disease. Ancient Greeks were familiar with lung disease in quarry workers (Hippocrates) and the fact that respirators could prevent the disease (Pliny). Agricola (1566) described disease in stone cutters as later did Ramazini (1713). By 1917, the US Public Health Service identified sand blasters and foundry workers to be at high risk of silicosis. As the twentieth century progressed, silicosis was the reference to which newer diseases were compared. 

In the United States, Rodnan and colleagues (1967) analyzed the occupations of 60 male patients with SSc. They reported that 26 of them had been coal miners and 10 of them had been foundry workers exposed to quartz sand. In eight of the patients, SSc was associated with silicosis of the lungs. This association between SSc and silicosis has been confirmed by other groups (Beck et al. 1976 Ziegler et al. 1982). 

Silicosis is the classic example of pneumoceniosis. The lung s protective system tries to remove the silica particles by phagocytizing or engulfing them. The silica destroys the phagocytes, and other phagocytes form layer-nodules, which usually are detected by X-rays. Foundry workers exposed to silica experienced relief when green olivine, nonsilica sands were used. 

Because there is interest in protecting foundry worker health and using waste molding sands in other applications, concern over potentially harmful thermal decomposition products is warranted. The objective of this study research was to identify thermal decomposition products... 

Koeger et al. 8 SSc, 3 with silicosis Underground worker, sand molder, dental prosthetist, foundry engineer, marble sculptor, miner, sandblaster, mason, sandstone cutter Silica dust... 

---