Silica dust is widely prevalent in the atmosphere and more common than the other types of dust, thus making silicosis the most frequently occurring pneumoconiosis. In India also, studies carried out by National Institute of Occupational Health have shown high prevalence of silicosis in small factories and even in nonoccupational exposed subjects. The postero-anterior chest radiographs remain th...

We present the case of a 26-year-old stonemason with accelerated silicosis in the setting of treatment for psoriasis with the tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitor adalimumab. Accelerated silicosis is an important occupational lung disease with a poor prognosis and limited treatment options [1]. Although the exact pathogenesis remains unknown, it is suggested that secretion of cyto...

Silicosis is a fibrotic disease of the lungs caused by inhalation, retention, and pulmonary reaction to crystalline silica. Crystalline silica exposure is widespread, and silica sand is an inexpensive and versatile component of many manufacturing processes. Its use and the incidence of silicosis are increased in industrial operations by the mechanization and the use of sandblasting, drilling, p...

The relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and silicosis was studied by means of a case-control study in South African gold miners. One hundred and fifty seven miners with rheumatoid arthritis classified as "definite" (91) or "probable" (66) were individually matched by year of birth with miners who had no evidence of rheumatoid arthritis. Unmatched analysis of the case-control status for "p...

We investigated exposure-response relations for silicosis among 134 men over age 40 who had been identified in a previous community-based random sample study in a mining town. Thirty-two percent of the 100 dust-exposed subjects had radiologic profusions of small opacities of I/O or greater at a mean time since first silica exposure of 36.1 years. Of miners with cumulative silica exposures of 2 ...

OBJECTIVES To compare the usefulness of high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) with chest radiography (CR) in the diagnosis and assessment of severity of silicosis. METHODS 27 workers exposed to silica underwent CR, HRCT, and pulmonary function tests. Two experienced readers independently evaluated CR by International Labour Office classification, and grouped the results into four categor...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To reexamine the symptoms, lung function, and chest radiographs of older gold miners who continued to work in or around gold mines 5 years after their enrollment in the cohort. DESIGN A follow-up study of a stratified sample of a cohort of gold miners. SETTING A health-care center for 24 gold mines in Welkom, South Africa. POPULATION A stratified, random sample of 242 mine...

BACKGROUND Crystalline silica and asbestos are common minerals that occur throughout South Africa, exposure to either causes respiratory disease. Most studies on silicosis in South Africa have been cross-sectional and long-term trends have not been reported. Although much research has been conducted on the health effects of silica dust and asbestos fibre in the gold-mining and asbestos-mining s...

BACKGROUND Although crystalline silica exposure is associated with silicosis, lung cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is less support for an association with autoimmune disease, and renal disease. METHODS Using data from the US National Occupational Mortality Surveillance (NOMS) system, a matched case-control design was employed to examine ...

The necropsy findings on the cardiorespiratory organs of 849 South African gold miners were analysed to test the hypothesis that fibrosis of the hilar lymph glands predisposes to the development of parenchymal silicotic nodules. Four hundred and eighty three cases had fibrosed glands, 34% of which also had parenchymal silicosis. By comparison, of 238 cases with silicosis, 88% had fibrosed gland...