Prevalence of silicosis in a marble factory after exposure to quartz conglomerates

• Published in: Archivos de bronconeumología (English ed.) Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 50 - 51
• Main Authors: Pascual, Silvia, Urrutia, Isabel, Ballaz, Aitor, Arrizubieta, Itziar, Altube, Lander, Salinas, Carlos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: 01.01.2011
• ISSN: 1579-2129
• DOI: 10.1016/j.arbres.2010.09.004

In this note we present the increased prevalence of silicosis found in a marble factory after exposure to a new presentation of silica. A prospective, observational study was conducted on 11 workers who were exposed to different presentations of quartz surfaces since 1995. The jobs were divided into two groups: 4 subjects worked in the cutting workshop; the rest of the workers worked in assembly. Up to that date they had not used any specific respiratory protection apparatus. Six cases of silicosis have been diagnosed, which assumes a disease prevalence in this environment of 54.5%. Of the 6 affected, 5 (83.3% are assemblers. We highlight the high risk of developing silicosis in the handling of different products which make up the range of quartz surfaces.