#silicosis

[hexxywytch]

Oreo Ice Cream

[gothmusiclatinamerica]

"Toque De Queda" by Lota, Chile-based anarcho post-punk act Silicosis off of their 2023 release Bocetos

[thirtytwoelvismovies]

Miners who inhaled McIntyre Powder now guaranteed WSIB benefits

After years of calling on the Ontario government to acknowledge the destructive health impacts of McIntyre Powder on miners who were forced

My father, uncles and many family friends who worked in mines before 1980 were forced to breathe in finely ground aluminum before their shifts in order to prevent silicosis. The mines knew it didn’t do shit, and that it in fact made things worse (a family friend who died some years back would cough up blood at the end of every shift.). And when I say forced, you either breathed it in or lost your job. Cruel and inhumane. Compensation is way overdue.

[mudwerks]

Oct. 15, 1936. Washington, D.C. "Protection against that dreaded disease Silicosis is assured underground workers with this new sand-blasting helmet developed by William P. Biggs, Safety Engineer of the Navy Department. Weighing only 43 ounces, the helmet has been tested for nearly a year in various naval stations throughout the country." Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

[sciencesourceimages]

How U.S. Countertop Workers Started Getting Sick

by Nell Greenfieldboyce / NPR Health 

Ublester Rodriguez could not have anticipated that his life would be profoundly changed by kitchen and bathroom countertops.

He says that he grew up poor, in a small Mexican town, and came to the United States when he was 14. He spoke no English, but he immediately got a job.

"In the beginning I was working in a Chinese restaurant, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. It was all day, so I never had time to go to school," he recalls. "I was a dishwasher."

He labored in restaurant kitchens for about eight years. But he wanted Sundays off to go to church and play soccer. So when his brother-in-law offered to help him get a new job, he jumped at the chance.

That's how he ended up in a workshop that cuts and polishes slabs of an artificial stone to make kitchen and bathroom countertops.

"It was something totally different for me," says Rodriguez.

Back then, in 2000, the material he was cutting was also something totally different for the American countertop industry. The stuff looked a lot like natural granite. In reality, it was made in a factory, from bits of quartz bound together by a resin.

Read the entire article

Image above (Lung silicosis, X-ray) ©CNRI / Science Source 

[earthstory]

El Cerro Rico – The mountain that eats men

Cerro Rico is a mountain that sits just outside the Bolivian town of Potosi, and is part of the Andean Mountain Chain. Although the Andes mountains are mostly growing, this mountain is unique; it's actually collapsing, leading to the unnerving nickname "The Mountain that Eats Men!"

The reason for its collapse and death toll can solely be pinned to burrowing beneath the mountains surface. Mining has been going on for 500 years due to the large amount of silver ore contained within the mountain. There was so much ore that when the Spanish first claimed Bolivia as part of its Empire, Potosi became one of the richest cities in the New World.

But mining is dangerous work; the trapped Chilean miners and the coal gas explosion in New Zealand have both proven that in recent years. In Potosi, most miners will die of silicosis (a lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust thrown into the air as rock is blasted with dynamite) before they reach the age of 40, that’s if they don’t die due to a collapse or toxic gases first. In total it is estimated that Cerro Rico has claimed the life of over 8 million men during its long history, and it has the potential to kill many more.

In 2011 a 700km2 sinkhole appeared at the summit of Cerro Rico and the peak is sinking by several centimetres every day. This has been directly linked to the maze of tunnels and cavities dug by miners; the mountain peak is actually sinking into the open space. To make matters worse, the flanks of the mountain are also pockmarked with an array of holes, suggesting they too are caving in. The government is planning to try and pump a super light mixture of cement, polyethylene, and sand into the summit with supporting arches and metal nets set into the mountain to try and plug the gap, but it hasn’t been easy. The challenges involved are only amplified by the 4,768m elevation, which leads to sub-zero temperatures and lack of oxygen.

The government also banned mining above 4,400 metres, but with no attempt to enforce this 1,500 miners still regularly work above this level. The mining sector in this area is all powerful and local governments are unlikely to intervene in their operations, meaning safety standards are also perilously low. The miners themselves are unlikely to protest the point as they believe El Tío (a horned god of the mines) controls their fate and can only be appeased with daily offerings.

But it is not all doom and gloom, tourism has recently boomed in the area giving Potosi an income outside of the collapsing mountain. The irony, of course, is that the very mountain the locals are causing to collapse is the site the tourists are coming to see. It can only be hoped that something is done to save both the mountain and the men that work within its cavernous halls before it is too late.

Watson

Image Credit: Max Toranzos and Ritterback, courtesy of Corbis

References: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/10/bolivia-cerro-rico-mountain-sink-city-potosi http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2077641,00.html

Further Reading: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/8/struggling-to-savethemountainthateatsmen.html

[tser]

Joshs frogs false bottom, NEHERP LDL, and other similar products are all growstone, aka recycled glass, and the manufacturer's website says it is not safe for animals. These products are also very dusty and require both respiratory and skin protection to handle. This dust contains powdered glass that cover the vivarium in microscopic glass particles. Why is a product clearly stated to not be safe for animals even being sold for this purpose? Rinsed hydroton or aquarium gravel are much safer.

The reason they have that warning is because of the silica content. 

The same silica content that play sand has -- that is why play sand often has warnings on it that are the same! Yet we use play sand as a component in bioactive substrate and as substrate for hermit crabs, fish, and other animals. And people let their children play in it. That’s even what it’s sold for. (The warnings in California are even more dire!) All natural beach sand also contains silica and has the same risks.

Silicosis is very serious. It is a risk of any dusty material containing silica. Hydroton is an expanded clay product which also contains silica, and there is a risk in breathing the dust on it. 

Glass and clay are essentially variations on the same minerals. 

I work with ceramic material for a living, and we take many cautions in working with it. We never sweep, we only mop. We wear ventilators when handling dry clay. We never mix clay or glaze materials without using a huge filtering vent. We do not sand pieces except under the vent, wearing a mask. 

You should be very careful breathing things like dusty excavator clay, decomposed granite, pumice, diatomaceous earth, and similar products also. It is also in almost all dirt (this is what caused all the respiratory issues during the Dust Bowl).

Silicosis is accumulative and once you breathe in silica the damage is done. You can have acute silicosis from breathing a lot at once, but there is also chronic, which is breathing smaller amounts over time.

You should rinse both expanded glass drainage and LECA or Hydroton, but one is not safer than the other. It is best to wear a mask when doing so to avoid breathing the dust.

Once the product is thoroughly washed, they are both safe. They are also used in a way that keeps them wet, and below a substrate layer, meaning breathing dust is not a risk to the pet.

Aquarium gravel is also safe, but very heavy. A silica free choice that’s lighter is a false bottom using egg crate and fiberglass mesh. 

I hope this clears up any worries about the safety of expanded glass and expanded clay drainage layers!

[indizombie]

Rajasthan has the highest number of mine leases (close to 35,000 mines, according to a 2015 report by the Department of Mines and Geology, Rajasthan), and has been at the centre of the silicosis debate in the country. A large number of its nearly 2.5 million mine-workers are under threat, with sandstone miners at even greater risk because sandstone has some of the highest quantities of silica. There were 125 confirmed cases of silicosis in Bundi in 2015, and 113 in 2016, according to government data. An occupational lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust found in rock, sand, quartz and other building materials, silicosis is incurable and deadly, but since it affects underprivileged mine workers, it remains unnoticed and mostly under-reported. Even though silicosis can be prevented through wet drilling and protective gear, most mines in Rajasthan are small-scale and unorganised, the workers are recruited informally, without contracts, and health and safety rules are not enforced. The mine owners get away with the least amount of culpability and do nothing to improve the work conditions.

Sunaina Kumar, 'There’s death in the air here: in a village in Rajasthan, silicosis caused by sand mining has reached epidemic-like levels', The Hindu