06 August 2024
Silica dust
Credit: Patrick Howlett

view large

Scientists have found that a worker’s lifetime exposure to ‘permissible’ levels of silica dust results in a considerable risk of developing silicosis.

New research led by Imperial College London has found that workplace exposure to silica dust is linked to an increased risk of the acute lung condition silicosis and recommends current occupational exposure limits should be halved.

Silicosis is a progressive incurable lung disease caused by breathing in silica dust. Millions of people around the world work in jobs where they are exposed to silica dust, including miners, pottery workers and those involved in the manufacture and fitting of quartz and granite kitchen counters. The UK’s legal occupational limit is 0.1mg/m3 but there is a lower limit in some other countries.

An All Party Parliamentary group in the UK Government has called for evidence regarding whether current occupational exposure levels are safe.

The researchers, at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, looked at all the available evidence relating to silicosis research, including studies drawing on x-rays, post-mortem examination results, and death certificates. They wanted to establish the cumulative risk of silicosis and identify the exposure level at which the risk would be reduced.

In the research, published in the journal ‘Thorax’ journal today, the team assessed eight studies, involving 8792 cases of silicosis among 65,977 participants.