Low-Level Respirable Crystalline Silica and Silicosis: Long-Term Follow-Up of Vermont Granite Workers

Pamela M. Vacek (), Robert E. Glenn and John E. Parker
Additional contact information
Pamela M. Vacek: Medical Biostatistics Unit, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
Robert E. Glenn: Glenn Consulting Group, 2784 Little Creek Road, Seabrook Island, SC 29455, USA
John E. Parker: Pulmonary and Critical Medicine, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: The lifetime risk of silicosis associated with low-level occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica remains unclear because most previous radiographic studies included workers with varying exposure concentrations and durations. This study assessed the prevalence of silicosis after lengthy exposure to respirable crystalline silica at levels ≤ 0.10 mg/m 3 . Vermont granite workers employed any time during 1979–1987 were traced and chest radiographs were obtained for 356 who were alive in 2017 and residing in Vermont. Work history, smoking habits and respiratory symptoms were obtained by interview, and exposure was estimated using a previously developed job-exposure matrix. Associations between radiographic findings, exposure, and respiratory symptoms were assessed by ANOVA, chi-square tests and binary regression. Fourteen workers (3.9%) had radiographic evidence of silicosis, and all had been employed ≥30 years. They were more likely to have been stone cutters or carvers and their average exposure concentrations and cumulative exposures to respirable crystalline silica were significantly higher than workers with similar durations of employment and no classifiable parenchymal abnormalities. This provides direct evidence that workers with long-term exposure to low-level respirable crystalline silica (≤0.10 mg/m 3 ) are at risk of developing silicosis.

Keywords: silicosis; crystalline silica; granite; chest radiograph; exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/608/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/5/608/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:5:p:608-:d:1391635

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().