Dust And Its Effects On The Respiratory System

Our plain-English summary of Dust And Its Effects On The Respiratory System, by G.H. Gill (1947).

The study

• Author: G.H. Gill
• Published: London: H.K. Lewis, Pp. 1-50 (1947)
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 002879. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This booklet by G.H. Gill described how dust affects the respiratory system and how airborne dust is measured. It was a general explanatory text, not a report of a new study. Most of the scanned text was unreadable. Legible headings included silicosis and byssinosis, a disease linked to cardroom dust in cotton mills. Legible pages described instruments for sampling and counting workplace dust. The author wrote that the Zeiss konimeter, one of two similar instruments, had been used extensively in South Africa for the past thirty years. The Owens jet dust counter was described in three ways: low in efficiency for particles of 2 to 5 microns, needing careful calibration before routine control use in any particular industry, and not suitable for fibrous dusts. The author noted that a well-controlled plant may have a dust concentration as low as 1 mg per cubic metre. Concentrations of 20 to 200 mg per cubic metre were described as common in normal investigations. No passage about asbestos could be read. No overall conclusion of the booklet could be read.

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.

What the study did and found

• Design: General explanatory booklet (review-type text) on dust, lung physiology, dust diseases and dust-testing methods; no original study described in the legible text
• Exposure: Industrial dusts in general. Legible headings cover silicosis and byssinosis (cotton cardroom dust). No legible mention of asbestos.
• Main results:
  • The Zeiss konimeter, one of two similar types of instrument, had been used extensively in South Africa for the past thirty years
  • The Owens jet dust counter has low efficiency for particles of 2 to 5 microns, which the author called of vital importance in industrial investigations
  • The Owens jet dust counter would need careful calibration against standards in any particular industrial application before routine control use
  • The Owens jet dust counter was described as not suitable for fibrous dusts
  • A well-controlled plant may have a dust concentration as low as 1 mg per cubic metre
  • In normal investigations, dust concentrations of 20 to 200 mg per cubic metre are common

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Silicosis.

Browse return to medical research.