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Industrial Diseases

Industrial disease includes those diseases that are incurred because of the conditions orenvironment of employment. Unlike accidents, time usually elapses between exposure to the causeand development of the disease.

Poisoning

Poisoning could happen due to following substances:

Arsenic, benzene, carbon dioxide, carbon disulphide, carbon monoxide, chlorinatedhydrocarbons, lead, mercury, nitro- or amino- derivatives of benzene, phenol, oxides ofnitrogen, phosphorous, isocyanates

Disease from physical agents

Hand, arm and foot vibration syndrome

Dysbarism: decompression sickness including Caisson disease Noise-included hearing loss Any disease due to exposure to x-rays, radium or other radioactive substances

Respiratory diseases

Asbestosis Silicosis Pneumocomiosis other than silicosis or asbestosis

Cancer

Carcinoma of the lung, larynx or pharynx or gastro-intestinal cancer Primary cancers associated with the oesophagus stomach, small bowel, colon and rectum Epithelimatous (skin) cancer

Respiratory Diseases

Certain dusts, particularly those found in mines and other work places, affect the body in differentways. Some are not dangerous and others may bring injury, even death. The lung diseases caused

by dusts are called pneumoconiosis. The name of each pneumoconiosis comes from the dust that

produces it. The most common known being silicosis.Silicosis

Silicosis is the most common and important dust disease. It results from inhaling silica, or quartzdust, into the lungs. Silicosis is a potentially serious disease and it has been since man first workedin stone. All types of mining which result in the release of silica from hard rock can producesilicosis if the worker is exposed to a significant amount of silica for a long period of time. Thisincludes the mining of gold, lead, zinc, iron and copper, as well as anthracite coal and some

bituminous coal. Other jobs that have led to silicosis are foundry work, sandstone grinding,sandblasting, pottery, china making and granite carving.

Silicosis develops in direct proportion to the amount silica breathed in, and the length of time theworker is exposed to it. Most doctors believe that silica slowly dissolves within the lungs and

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produce a chemical that poisons the cells. After a while, this reaction causes great damage andscarring of the lungs. Complicating diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia may develop.

Asbestosis

Asbestosis is caused by asbestos fibers. It develops after years of exposure to the asbestos fiber.After this disease becomes well established the worker develops increasing breathlessness oftenwith cough, sputum and weight-loss. One of the diseases associated with asbestosis is lung cancer.This usually occurs in the asbestos worker who smokes cigarettes. Another rare but seriousmalignant disease, mesothelioma of the pleura, is often an asbestos related disease. In contrast toasbestosis which depends on the dosage of the exposure to asbestos fiber, the malignant pleuraltumor, mesothelioma, is not necessarily related to heavy exposure to asbestos fiber. As the asbestosfiber in the working environment is reduced to low levels of risk of asbestosis or lung cancer will

be reduced. Asbestosis can be caused by inhaling asbestos fiber in the mining or milling ofasbestos, the textile, cement and insulating industries.

Other dust diseases

Berylliosis caused by inhaling beryllium dust Baritosis, siderosis, stannosis are caused by inhaling dusts of barium sulphate, iron oxide

(acr-welding fumes) or tin oxide respectively Coal workers pneumoconiosis is caused by inhaling coal dust

How dust invades the lungs

A miner, digging into the rocky earth, may spend all his working hours with powderly dust swirlingaround him. Or a plant worker may perform a grinding operation in which a cloud of dust is

released. Goggles may protect a persons eyes, but unless the nose, mouth and throat are protectedsome of the smallest particles of dust may work their way down to the tiny air sacs of the lungs.

The dust also gains access to the lungs lymph channels and lymph nodes which form a line ofdefense for the lungs by removing the dust particles away from the lung tissue. Later on, if theworker continues to breathe in a great amount of the harmful material, dust is found throughout thelungs. Sometimes this may not cause trouble, but in certain instances with special kinds of dust,these deposits sooner or later cause injury and may also lead to death.

How the lung fight back

To protect the lungs against dirt or soot or mineral dust, nature has designed a wonderful defensesystem.

Tiny hair called cilia, line the nose and act as a barrier, keeping out much of the dust. More cilialine the bronchial tubes (passages that bring air into the lung) and over theses cilia is spread a

blanket of mucus, a sticky slippery substance which we sometimes cough up.

Much invading dust, especially the large particles, is caught in the sticky mucus. The process workslike a conveyor: the cilia, in constant motion, whip the mucus blanket and its load of dust upward -and outward- to be spit out or swallowed harmlessly.

This system works very well most of the time. But even natures defense in unusual circumstancescan fail. For instance, smoking slows and can eventually stop the movement of cilia.

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How dust affects the lungs

Dusts are different in the way they affect the lungs and the difference lies in the dust itself.Different kinds of dust may affect the body in the following ways:

Little apparent damage certain dusts such as carbon, iron or tin cause no damage Irritation - asbestos fibers for example, may set up a reaction that results in scarring of the

lungs. This usually results only after many years of steady exposure to asbestos fiber Cellular and chemical reaction this is believed to be the case with silicosis, with quartz

dust triggering a direct chemical reaction within the lungs resulting in fibrosis (scarring).Also scavenger cells in the lungs pick up the silica particles with release of a scar

producing substanceThese types of reaction injure the lungs in various ways but the disease process in its laterstage results in the symptom of shortness of breath and at times, coughing

The patient and his symptoms

At the beginning, there may be no symptoms. Shortness of breath is the first symptom. It usually begins after some years after the beginning of exposure to the harmful dust. A cough comes next.With extensive scarring of the lung there may be chest pains. The dust deposits, which have slowedup the normal transfer of oxygen into the blood stream, may result in blueness of the lips and earlobes, in late stages of the disease. The development of other illnesses is a serious threat to personswith a dust disease.

Pneumonia, pulmonary heart disease and lung cancer are complications that often go with a dustdisease. Chronic bronchitis is frequently seen in workers exposed to dust. With asbestos workerslung cancer is more likely to occur with smoking habits.

Treatment

Treatment for dust disease is difficult. Shortness of breath and coughing can often be helped.Cessation of smoking will help the worker with bronchitis in particular. How serious a dust diseaseis very often depends on how much dust is inhaled. Therefore, the best treatment obviously is tolimit the exposure to the harmful dust. A change of occupation may be important for young menwhose illness is in an early stage. On the other hand, men near retirement age may be told that theycan continue work if the amount of dust they breathe is reduced.

Prevention

The dust level can be reduced by means such as;

Adequate ventilation Use of face mask Piping of clean air into a closed hood over the workers head or removal of dust by suction

as it is produced Wetting down of material before they are worked on Switching from a harmful material to one that does not cause disease is as ideal to be

achieved if possible

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Vibration syndrome

The vibration hand-tools can cause vibration syndrome, a condition also known as vibration whitefinger and as Raynauds phenomenon of occupational origin. Vibration syndrome has adversecirculatory and neural effects in the fingers. The signs and symptoms include numbness, pain and

blanching (turning pale and ashen). Of particular concern is evidence of advanced stages of

vibration syndrome after exposure as short as one year. Jobs should be redesigned to minimize theuse of vibrating hand-tool and powered hand-tools should be redesigned to minimize vibration.Where jobs cannot be redesigned to eliminate vibrating tools such as pneumatic hammers, gasolinechain saws and other powered hand-tools engineering controls, work practices and administrativecontrols should be employed to minimize exposure.

Early stages of vibration syndrome are characterized by tingling or numbness in the fingers.Temporary tingling or numbness during or soon after the use of a vibrating hand-tool is notconsidered vibrating syndrome. To be diagnosed as vibration syndrome, these neurologicsymptoms must be more persistent and occur without provocation by immediate exposure to

vibration. Other symptoms of vibration syndrome include blanching, pain and flushing. Thesymptoms usually appear suddenly, and are precipitated by exposure to cold. With continuingexposure to vibration the signs and symptoms become more severe and the pathology may becomeirreversible.

Caisson disease

Caisson disease is a decompression sickness. (A caisson is a large metal vessel filled withcompressed air, within which people are able to work in tunneling or bridge building projects).

Caisson disease is an important cause of disability in deep-sea divers and compressed-air workers building tunnels or underwater structures. As a result of the increased air pressure the blood andother tissue, especially fat, become supersaturated with nitrogen. If the air pressure is decompressedtoo quickly then the nitrogen is released as bubbles, which cause local tissue damage. The lungs areimportant in filtering out bubble in venous blood and preventing cerebrovascular events.

Dysbarism

This is a general term that includes a complex variety of symptoms within the body caused bychanges in ambient barometric pressure. Characteristic symptoms are abdominal gas pains at

altitudes above 7500 9000m. Also at increased barometric pressure, as in descent from a highaltitude, the symptoms are characterized by painful distention of the ear drums and sinuses.