The Effects of Silica Dust Upon the Lungs (1927)

This 1927 article is Part II of a paper read at a public health meeting. It concerns silica dust, not asbestos, and reports no original worker data. The author described dust-measuring instruments such as the sugar tube and impinger, then discussed preventing silicosis through wet methods, devices keeping dust out of the air, and ventilation. Wet grinding had been considered the best method, but the author cited Winslow and Greenburg's ax-factory study, which found far more airborne dust particles with wet than with dry grinding. The author stated that wet methods alone had not kept air free from dust, and that rock dust is as dangerous to breathe wet as dry. Mechanical dust control, the author stated, lessens but does not eliminate silicosis and tuberculosis among miners, and men with silicosis are very susceptible to tuberculosis. Some industries in Australia, South Africa and Great Britain legally required physical examination of workers. The author concluded that no single measure would prevent silicosis, and that physical examination, good ventilation and wet methods, at least in some industries, must be kept continuously effective.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. It was among the papers J-M kept in its medical library without an index entry.