Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Occupational dust exposure occurs when small particles are generated at the workplace through the disturbance/agitation of rock/mineral, dry grain, timber, fiber, or other material. When these small particles become suspended in the air, they can pose a risk to the health of those who breath in the contaminated air.
When a person becomes sensitized to wood dust, he or she can suffer severe allergic reactions (such as asthma or dermatitis) after repeated exposure or exposure to lower concentrations of the dust. [3] Other common symptoms associated with wood dust exposure include skin and eye irritation; nasal dryness and obstruction; and prolonged colds. [3]
The dust from the collapsed towers was "wildly toxic", according to air pollution expert and University of California Davis Professor Emeritus Thomas Cahill. [6] Much of the thousands of tons of debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers was pulverized concrete, which is known to cause silicosis upon inhalation.
The disease gets its name because dust inhalation causes scarring in the lung tissue, which turns black as the condition worsens.
Pneumoconiosis is the general term for a class of interstitial lung disease where inhalation of dust (for example, ash dust, lead particles, pollen grains etc) has caused interstitial fibrosis. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The three most common types are asbestosis , silicosis , and coal miner's lung . [ 3 ]
There are two primary types of dust exposure in agriculture: inorganic and organic. Often the cause of allergy illnesses like asthma, organic dusts come from both plant and animal sources. Inorganic dust illnesses are non-allergic lung reactions that originate in the soil. [4] Asthma-like symptoms are linked to inorganic dust syndrome.
In 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 1-mg/m 3 (total dust) for cotton dust in work places. [9] Later in the 1978 OSHA developed the Cotton Dust Standard which aimed to prevent occupational respiratory disease, such as byssinosis, through medical monitoring of employees. [9]
Black lung disease (BLD), also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, [1] or simply black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs and the consequent lung tissue's reaction to its presence. [2]