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Show I Advice on Your HealtK t By Morris FnhMii, Editor. Journal American Medical AssoeJarioB i ' l Experts . estimate that 800,000 ' persons In the United Statu are exposed constantly to silica dust In the various Industries In which they are employed. Miners and stone cotters are chief sufferers. In 17 states, and the District of Columbia, laws have been passed providing that the workmen's compensation compensa-tion plan now covers this industrial indus-trial disease. Much experimentation has beea done with regard to controlling con-trolling this Industrial hazard. Adequate ventilation, using water to keep the dust down, reduces the total amount so greatly that silicosis Is much less a danger than It used to be. Investigators in Canada found that the addition of metallic aluminum dust to the silica dust would help to control the problem. prob-lem. -American investigstors do not recommend this technique l because they feel the addition of a still further impurity is not the way to meet this problem. A new Industry with a silica hazard has just been brought to light by an Investigation carried car-ried out among dental technicians who polish artificial dentures with pumice powder. They may develop conditions of the lungs like silicosis. Pumice dust Is included in-cluded In the list of harmful dusts of stllca-llke character along with quarts, sand, granite and slate. The pumice used In the United States comes from the LI part Islands. Here mill workers grind the lump pumice Into a fine powder. They apparently work In dense clouds of pumice dust. An Investigation made among workers In this Industry by an Italian Industrial physician showed that almost all of them suffer from ' silicosis. Chemical analyses show that pumice dust contains approximately 73 per cent of silica. An examination of the pumice used In the dental laboratory to polish artificial dentures showed that It contains 48 per cent of -silica. In many places pumice has been replaced by a compound called "pummy," which Is also a silica sand, ground to a much greater degree of fineness. Therefore, There-fore, it Is ...ore easily inhaled and is more likely U produce silicosis than Is pumice itself. Dental laboratories can equip polishing apparatus with exhaust hoods. Silicosis is usually first diagnosed diag-nosed by the use of the X-ray. The X-ray picture of the lungs reveals scarring and fibrous changes which are due to the action of the silica' dust on the delicate tissue of the lungs. |