Inhalers and oxygen therapy can help improve breathing and quality of life. The damage to the lungs is irreversible, and treatment is mainly about slowing the progression of the disease and relieving its symptoms. How can it be treated?ĭespite silicosis being around for a long time, there is still no cure. People with silicosis can have trouble sleeping and eating properly, and the disease also increases the risk of other severe conditions such as tuberculosis, lung cancer and emphysema. That can quickly progress to chest pains, fatigue and weight loss as the disease advances. “They get a little bit short of breath when they’re playing with their kids, or maybe work becomes more difficult,” says Hoy. Hoy has treated patients in their mid and late 20s. However, while symptoms from breathing in asbestos do not emerge until decades after the exposure, silicosis can develop in much younger people. Silicosis shares some similarities with asbestosis in that they are both caused by the lung’s reaction to inhaling certain dusts (see below). There may be no signs in the early stages but the more the disease spreads through the lungs, the more difficult it is to breathe. Symptoms can include a cough, shortness of breath and tiredness. Silica is present in particularly large amounts – up to 95 per cent – in engineered stone, the material used to make artificial stone benchtops. Silicosis is a long-term lung disease caused by inhaling crystalline silica, a fine dust naturally occurring in many construction materials such as stones, rocks, sand, bricks and tiles. So, what is silicosis? How big is the problem? And is silica really the new asbestos? What is silicosis, and what causes it? In November, the building and construction industry union, the CFMMEU, called for a ban on the material, labelling it the asbestos of the 2020s. The resurgence of silicosis has coincided with a boom in the artificial stone benchtop industry. “It was mind-boggling to find out just how widespread this has been.” Hoy assumed silicosis was a disease of the past – it is the oldest occupation lung disease in the world – but he is now treating an enormous and growing number of patients with the disease. “I naively assumed that there wouldn’t be such an extraordinarily hazardous material in common use around the country,” says Hoy, a senior research fellow at Monash University’s Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health. Although the bench posed no threat to him, he was shocked that the workers who made it were potentially exposed to a dangerous substance. It wasn’t until years later that Hoy, a respiratory physician, discovered the stone bench contained up to 95 per cent silica, a fine dust that is known to be a leading cause of lung diseases including cancer and silicosis. Like many Australians, he was sold on its affordability and sleek looks, achieving the same effect as marble or granite at a fraction of the cost. In 2012, Ryan Hoy renovated his house and installed an artificial stone benchtop in the middle of his kitchen. The dust from cutting engineered stone benchtops and vanities is killing Australian tradies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |