Acute silicosis in quartz millers

Abstract

Quartz may cause silicosis in a relatively short course of time in heavily exposed workers. Twenty-three males with an average age of 27 ± 7.97 years (range 17-48) had worked in a quartz mill for an average of 11.6 ± 9.4 months (range 1-36). Spirometric tests, b7Ga lung scintigraphy, fiberoptic bronchoscopy and bronchoal-veolar lavage studies were performed. Posteroanterior chest radiographies of the workers were scored according to the ILO standard x-ray films. Workers were allocated into two groups according to the 67Ga scan scores. Gro¬up I consisted of 8 workers who had a negative scan. Group II consisted of 15 subjects with a 67Ga scan score of 6.8 ± 4.1 (p