Artificial stone-associated silicosis in Belgium

Ronsmans, Steven; Decoster, Lynn; Keirsbilck, Stephan; Verbeken, Eric; Nemery, Benoît

doi:10.1136/oemed-2018-105436

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…A delay in recognizing well-known health hazards in innovative occupational settings may lead to ongoing dangerous exposures and the appearance of further cases. Indeed, in addition to the articles that were reviewed and presented in this review, during the selection process, we identified several other studies (not included in the review, since they did not meet the inclusion criteria, being mostly abstracts, letters to the editor, case-reports, or articles written in languages other than English) that suggest both the presence of AS-associated silicosis in other countries (i.e., the United States, Italy, or Belgium), and a growing interest of the international scientific community in this issue [22,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the concern that is aroused by this hazard alert has been further corroborated by the findings of several studies that have highlighted outbreaks of silicosis among AS workers in various countries throughout the world [24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]. Moreover, it is worth pointing out that the growing concern of the scientific community with regard to this topic is related, not only to an increased incidence of the disease in AS workers, but also to the different pathological characteristics and the high degree of severity of AS-associated silicosis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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Artificial Stone Associated Silicosis: A Systematic Review

Leso

Fontana

Romano

et al. 2019

IJERPH

140

113

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Silicosis is a progressive fibrotic lung disease that is caused by the inhalation of respirable crystalline silica. Due to its high silica content, artificial stone (AS) can become a possible source of hazardous dust exposure for workers that are employed in the manufacturing, finishing, and installing of AS countertops. Therefore, the aim of this review was to verify the association between AS derived silica exposure and silicosis development, and also then define the pathological characteristics of the disease in relation to specific work practices and preventive and protective measures that were adopted in the workplace. A systematic review of articles available on Pubmed, Scopus, and Isi Web of Knowledge databases was performed. Although the characteristics of AS-associated silicosis were comparable to those that were reported for the disease in traditional silica exposure settings, some critical issues emerged concerning the general lack of suitable strategies for assessing/managing silica risks in these innovative occupational fields. Further research that is designed to assess the hazardous properties of AS dusts, levels of exposure in workplaces, and the effectiveness of protective equipment appears to be needed to increase awareness concerning AS risks and induce employers, employees, and all factory figures that are engaged in prevention to take action to define/adopt proper measures to protect the health of exposed workers.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Artificial Stone Associated Silicosis: A Systematic Review

Leso

Fontana

Romano

et al. 2019

IJERPH

140

113

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“…All had died by the end of the 3-year follow-up. 56 Thirty-two men screened in a small agate mill in Guangzhou, China, found 15 cases of accelerated silicosis (prevalence of 47%) 27 3 ‡ 40-52 -2 (67%) Iran (2000-2007) 28 23 § 29 (13.7) 2 (0.6) 10 (43%) Italy (2004-2008) 29 1 ¶ 54 4 1 UK (2015) 30 6 ‡ 33.8 (5.9) 13 (5.3) 0 Iran (2017) 31 48 41 46 § 33 (29-37) 11 (9-17) 1 (2%) USA (2014) 42 1 ¶ 37 10 0 USA (1999-2003) 43 35 § --35 (100%) Italy (2015) 44 3 ‡ 48 (3.5) 13 (6) 0 Israel (2016) 45 47 19 § 47 (13.33) 11 (3.58) -Belgium (2018) 48 2 ‡ -<10 0 Australia (2018) 49 7 § 44 (26-61) 7 (4-10) 1 LTx (1%) Sandblaster Spain (2015) 50 1 ¶ 27 5 1 Czech Republic (2015) 51 1 ¶ 38 3.2 1 Turkey (2018) 52 1 ¶ 28 2 0 USA (2018) † † 53 101 § ---Stone crusher India (2015) 54 1 2 8 1 0 India (2015) 55 1 3 5 2 0 Jewellery and semi-precious stone workers India (2015) 56 19 -3.4 (1.7) 12 (63%) Brazil (2017) 57 57 32 12.5 6 (11%) China (2018) 34 15 (47% prevalence) 29 (4.9) 3.5 (1.7)…”

Section: Jewellery Polishersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silica‐associated lung disease: An old‐world exposure in modern industries

et al. 2019

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Despite silica dust exposure being one of the earliest recognized causes of lung disease, Australia, USA, Israel, Turkey and other countries around the world have recently experienced significant outbreaks of silicosis. These outbreaks have occurred in modern industries such as denim jean production, domestic benchtop fabrication and jewellery polishing, where silica has been introduced without recognition and control of the hazard. Much of our understanding of silica‐related lung disease is derived from traditional occupations such as mining, whereby workers may develop slowly progressive chronic silicosis. However, workers in modern industries are developing acute and accelerated silicosis over a short period of time, due to high‐intensity silica concentrations, oxidative stress from freshly fractured silica and a rapid pro‐inflammatory and pro‐fibrotic response. Appropriate methods of screening and diagnosis remain unclear in these workers, and a significant proportion may go on to develop respiratory failure and death. There are no current effective treatments for silicosis. For those with near fatal respiratory failure, lung transplantation remains the only option. Strategies to reduce high‐intensity silica dust exposure, enforced screening programmes and the identification of new treatments are urgently required.

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“…We thank Ronsmans et al 1 for their kind interest in our paper and the accompanying correspondence. We were most interested to read about their patients, who also worked without dust suppression measures nor adequate respiratory protection.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%