WHEN DUST CAN KILL YOU!

Silicosis is the incurable lung disease that occurs as a result of inhaling silica.?

And silica is a fancy name for dust.

Specifically, the type of dust found on, in and around construction sites, mines, quarries, factories, workshops, or in any place where rock, concrete, pottery, ceramics and other materials are being worked.?

Sand blasting, worktop and shopfitting, stone cutting, fitting paving slabs, and many other activities can generate the crystalline silica dust which causes silicosis.

It’s a fine dust, easily inhaled, and it causes swelling, hardening of the lungs and scarring, and once lungs are damaged like this, there’s no way back.

You either live with it, for the remainder of your natural life, or it will hasten an early death by complicating other conditions, or it will kill you directly.?Those are the options.

It usually takes months, or years of exposure, before you get silicosis, but not always.?There’s evidence that it can also come from shorter, intense exposure.

It can be tricky, and time-consuming, to diagnose in the early stages, and there’s no specific medical test for it.?Doctors will usually delve into your life in laborious depth – working history (with dates), environment, general health, smoking profile etc.

Diagnosis may involve any, all, or none of the following: imaging (CT scans, x-rays); lung function tests; sputum tests; a bronchoscopy (a tube which can take lung samples, but also has a tiny video camera attached, which is passed down your throat); a surgical lung biopsy conducted under general anaesthetic by a cardiothoracic surgeon.

Symptoms start with a cough, the production of sputum, shortness of breath, and exhaustion.?

As it develops, chest x-rays may show the scarring and the cough will become more extreme.

The symptoms may eventually become bronchial and breathing will become increasingly more difficult.?Weakness, fatigue, fever, night sweats, leg swelling, and bluish discoloration of the lips may lead on to complications such as tuberculosis, lung cancer, kidney disease, pulmonary hypertension, repeated chest infections, and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).

In the late stages, climbing the stairs to bed may be impractical.

In the end, it can cause heart failure and total lung collapse, either of which may kill you, well before your allotted time.?To get this in proportion, it’s rare for the disease to progress to this level, but it happens.

Because it is incurable, silicosis patients undergo ‘lifetime maintenance treatment’.?

This involves avoiding dust (in particular silica dust) as much as possible, stopping smoking, a regime of regular tests for TB, an annual flu vaccine and the pneumococcal vaccine.

You may be prescribed bronchodilator medicines to widen your airways so you can breathe more easily, and you’ll be given antibiotics for certain types of chest infection.

Some patients will get a lung transplant, but ironically, you have to meet health requirements before you’ll be approved for one.?In the UK, you may be qualified to receive state benefits.

On the whole, then, silica dust – and silicosis – are best avoided.??As always, this is just a brief indication, not a training course:?you should have a full, comprehensive, and detailed awareness of this issue and that can only be delivered as a segment of proper health and safety training.?

But in brief, these are the things you should take care over, in order to avoid getting silicosis.

Awareness of silica dust must always be part of your risk assessment, and your safe system of work.

Crews should always wear appropriate, correctly-fitting PPE, including a respirator when drilling, cutting or handling construction materials.?

Even sweeping up after a job can generate large amounts of dangerous airborne dust, and it can remain in the air for a long time.?Consider using water spray during the job, and damping-down the area before cleaning up (that is a mitigation, not a complete solution – you should still be wearing PPE).

In the UK, workplaces must comply with The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (2002), which set workplace limits for silica exposure.?Get to know it.??

Your employer should warn you about risks to your health (which means training you to recognise the risks of silica and how to mitigate them).?Employers must also provide you with appropriate PPE.?These are legal requirements.?If, for any reason, you do not have the proper PPE, don’t expose yourself to risk until it is provided.

Silicosis is a nasty disease and is one of those things that no one should develop in the 21st Century.?But they will.

If you take care in the working environment, make sure you’re knowledgeable about it, that your training is topped up, and that your PPE is appropriate, it’s avoidable.

And believe me, avoiding it would be best.??

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