Silicosis is a disease that occurs in the lungs when airborne particles of respirable size, ie smaller than 5 microns, enter the body with air, and this disease can usually be detected by radiography. Silicosis is one of the most rapidly occurring dust diseases in the lung and causes serious discomfort.

Exposure to silica is very common among people working in workplaces where respirable-sized silica dusts exceed the levels required for safety. Today, lung diseases take the first place among the most common occupational diseases in our country and in the world. Over one million people in the United States are exposed to silica each year, and five percent of them suffer from silicosis.

Silica exposure is the most common workplaces, quarries, sand blasting works, quartz mills, miners, founders, tunnel diggers, glass industry, ceramics, stained glass, pottery, tile, brick, slime production and cement production.

Silica is present in most of the rocks. For this reason, there is silica exposure in the works where the works such as crushing, grinding and burning of soil and rocks are performed. When free silica, ie, silicon dioxide crystals, reaches the livers by inhalation, a continuous reaction to dust occurs in the lungs. These reactions lead to the accumulation of silica particles. In the first period of exposure no discomfort is felt. Clinical symptoms begin to appear years later. Over time, shortness of breath and dry coughs begin. Shortness of breath increases in advanced stages. Worse, heart failure and respiratory failure can cause death.

Accredited laboratories also perform silica exposure measurements within the scope of personal exposure measurements. These measurements and analyzes are based on the following methods and standards:

• HSE MDHS 101 Crystalline silica in respirable airborne dusts (silica analysis)
• NIOSH 7601 Silica, crystalline, by vis (silica, silica crystals)