logo white

e-Toolkit

Silicosis and dust-related diseases

A note from our CEO
Section I: Taking action to eliminate silicosis and dust-related diseases
Ideal management approaches
National action plans and strategies for silicosis/dust diseases
Section II: Country summaries, case studies and resources
Silica country summaries – Australia
Silica country summaries – International
Pneumoconiosis case studies
Research on silicosis and dust-related diseases
Section III: What silica and other occupational dusts are and the risks they pose
Mineralogical features of silica
Other dust/fume-related exposures
Exposure pathways
Historical progression of silica and other dust-related diseases
Section IV: Health impacts of exposure to asbestos
What are dust/fume-related diseases?
How are dust-related diseases diagnosed?
Clinical features of silicosis and other dust-related diseases
Patient support, care and information
Reporting, coding and registration of occupational dust-related diseases

Historical elimination of silicosis and pneumoconiosis

Silicosis’ very name, coined in 1871, only reached medical consensus through the International Labour Organization (ILO) conference in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1930, 5 which led to an ILO convention in 1934. In 1958, an ILO agreement defined the chest radiograph features of the disease, and in 1995 an ILO/World Health Organization (WHO) Global Programme for the Elimination of Silicosis was established and subsequently reaffirmed. 6 The implementation of global silicosis policies has however generally been disappointing and more limited than what had been envisaged.

On the other hand, international law has shaped silicosis as a local disease. Its circular definition in the 1934 ILO convention defined it as a disease occurring in ‘industries or processes recognised by national law or regulations as involving exposure to the risk of silicosis’. By its explicit institutional legal definition, silicosis epitomizes the medicolegal character of ‘occupational disease’, which can vary across countries.

Second, by crystalline silica being the main mineral component in the earth crust, silicosis affects all sectors—not only the traditional industrial ones such as construction and building, but also ancient craftsmanship (stonecutting), modern technologies (dental prostheses), farming or fashionable productions (kitchen benchtop fabricated from artificial stone) and clothes (stone‐washed jeans). The global ubiquity of silica has however never been translated into a universal public health issue. Only in specific contexts have local physicians been aware of the hazard linked to RCS exposure.

The mining industry, on which medical research, prevention and compensation through social welfare have historically focused, provides an obvious exception. However, even in this sector, the visibility of the disease has never been complete nor consistent. For instance, reluctant to acknowledge silicosis in the mining sector, the United Kingdom focused on ‘Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis’ after World War 2, and the United States built legislation around ‘Black Lung’ in 1969. Currently, the situation is much worse in coal‐producing regions where public debate on pneumoconiosis is actively suppressed (e.g. China, Russia). In the 20th century, trade unions were a primary force advocating for recognition and prevention of silicosis while more recently new actors have emerged including non‐governmental organizations. The use of new information and communication technologies, which drive ‘popular epidemiology’, enables reporting of individual cases, particularly in China. This rapidly changing technology will continue to update and broaden the role that individual whistle‐blowers (including physicians, radiologists, unionists) will play in advocating for the prevention of silicosis, in very diverse national arenas such as political (e.g. parliamentary commissions), administrative (labour ministries, social insurance bureaucracies), judiciary and the media.

Reference

Current global perspectives on silicosis—Convergence of old and newly emergent hazards

Ryan F Hoy, Mohamed F Jeebhay, Catherine Cavalin, Weihong Chen, Robert A Cohen, Elizabeth Fireman, Leonard H T Go, Antonio León‐Jiménez, Alfredo Menéndez‐Navarro, Marcos Ribeiro, Paul‐André Rosental.

Read more

Sign up to our newsletter

Sign up
Skip to content