Silicosis Injury Legal Counsel

Silicosis is a fibronodular lung disease, commonly found in people working in raw material plants, mining, refractories, sandblasting, refineries, casting plants and foundries. Silica is a mineral found in rock and salt. It is a preventable disease. Symptoms of this disease include change in breathing patterns, coughing, chest pain loss of appetite, shortness of breath and fever. Silicosis develops gradually with no or few symptoms but it can lead to hazardous diseases like lung transplants, cancer, tuberculosis, kidney ailments or even death.

Rapid Rise in the Silicosis Litigation

A mining scandal in the Hawk’s Nest, West Virginia, shook the entire nation. This incident in the 1930s brought to light the hazardous effects of a material called Silica. One of the construction company’s asked its workers to mine the substance or mineral. However, the construction company failed to provide the workers with masks including other safety equipments. As a result, workers inhaled the dust. Workers were not even warned of the hazardous effects of silica dust. The silica dust settled heavily on their skin and clothes, which they carried to homes. Now, their family was also exposed to large amount of silica. After a year, workers started dying due to respiratory disease, which came to be known as Silicosis, one of the incurable lung diseases.

Because of this scandal, Occupational Safety and Health Organization made new safety standards mandating protective gear, ventilation and duration to which the workers should be exposed to silica. The no. of workers dying of silicosis declined after Great Depression.

In the past few years, no. of lawsuits related to silicosis increased surprisingly. One of the country’s largest producers of silica, U.S. Silica, reported a rise in the lawsuits filed against it between June 2001 and June 2002. Seventy-six Silicosis lawsuits were filed in the state of Mississippi in 2001 and by the end of 2004 the figure of lawsuits rise to 20,000.

Silica is one of the most common mineral found in the earth’s crust. It is found in various industrial materials like pavement, sands, paints, cement and concrete. Though, European stonecutters identified the dangers of silicosis in 1705, employers fail to provide workers with the safety equipment until now. In some instances, employers fail to warn the workers of the hazardous effects of silica exposure. According to OSHA, about 1.7 million workers in the U.S. are exposed to silica every year. Out of this, 250 workers die every year.

There are similarities between Silicosis litigation and Asbestos litigation. Like silica, asbestos was used in construction and manufacturing. Because of it, millions of Americans were exposed to it every year. Both of these minerals can be inhaled but not exhaled .This causes scarring on lungs leading to respiratory damage. Many of the same companies used and manufactured both the minerals.

Similar to asbestosis and asbestos related diseases, silicosis occurs because human beings can only breathe in the silica particles that settles inside body, but can never breathe silica particles out. Prolonged silica exposure paves the way for the silica particles to lodge deep within the lungs, from where they cannot be cleared either by coughing or mucous. Over a long period of time, silica exposure causes scarring and inflammation on the lungs.

Loss of appetite, fatigue, persistent cough and extremists turning blue are other symptoms of silicosis. In some cases, it weakens the heart of the patient making him dependent on respirator.