Health Talk

Silicosis or also known as Potter's rot, is a type of occupational lung disease which is caused by inhalation of airborne crystalline silica dust. It often cause inflammation and scarring like nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneumoconiosis.

One of the components of earth's crust is silica, this makes mining occupation and some other sand and rock related jobs have high exposure to this mineral. Medical experts have acknowledged this disease especially the acute form which has asthmatic symptoms such as shortness of breath, bluish skin (cyanosis), cough, fever and sometimes misdiagnosed as tuberculosis or pneumonia.

Once you are exposed to silica dioxide in a regular basis, dust will accumulate to your lungs which can become inflamed, create lesions and then develop nodules and fibroids. What makes the matter worse is that, silicosis does not have any symptoms in its initial stage that makes it a very hard to diagnose.

There are four known classifications of silicosis.

1. Chronic Simple Silicosis
A long term exposure to crystallized silica in a period of 10 years belongs to this group. Initially no signs and symptoms in its initial stage after the first year of exposure. Abnormalities can be identified through chest x-ray. Chronic coughing is the usual symptoms of simple silicosis.

2. Accelerated Silicosis
This type of silicosis has an accelerated development of symptoms within 5 years from first year of exposure to silica. Symptoms are the same with simple silicosis and can be diagnosed through x-ray but occurs much earlier and progress much rapidly.

3. Complicated Silicosis
Silicosis is said to be complicated if severe scarring is developed and the nodules are rapidly growing. Symptoms of this type of silicosis are more severe and most of the time, it was caused by other lurking diseases such as tuberculosis, fungal infections, autoimmune diseases and sometimes lung cancer.

4. Acute Silicosis
Too much accumulation of silica dust may lead to acute silicosis or also known as silicoproteinosis. Asthmatic symptoms are commonly experience together with fever, weakness, excessive weight loss which then leads to death. X-ray scan reveals a ground-glass like appearance in the lungs which is similar to pneumonia and alveolar hemorrhage.

Once you are diagnosed with silicosis, you are also prone to other respiratory illnesses such as tuberculosis and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Heart problems may also occur such as enlargement of the heart because the vessels in the lungs leads to the heart. Smoking cigarettes will also make the condition much worse and will fasten the development of nodules and other symptoms.

Sillicosis is an irreversible disease without available treatment until today. The only thing the experts can do is to alleviate its symptoms and prevent further complications. Alternative treatments includes the following.

Silicosis is a serious disease and should be diagnosed in its early stage to prevent complications. If you happen to have a job similar to what is mentioned above, you may want to change your career to any other possible jobs because silicosis is not surely what you want on your retirement!

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