If inhaled, silica dust from cut or drilled stone, can cause a fatal lung disease. Experts want better protections for workers exposed to it every day.
New limits to a person’s daily exposure to silica dust in the construction, mining, dentistry and other industries could save about 13,000 lives worldwide.
That’s what researchers in the UK recommend, having found that a worker’s lifetime exposure to current, “acceptable” limits can result in serious risk of developing silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease.
They warn that silicosis could become as big a health problem as exposure to asbestos.
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