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SILICA

	Worker grinding concrete, worker cutting rock, silica particles

Other Silica Resources

Books and Monographs

Crystalline Silica Primer
US Branch of Mineral Industries. Washington DC: US Department of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1992

Crystalline Silica, Quartz
(Concise International Chemical Assessment Document No. 24). Geneva: World Health Organization, 2000. ISBN 9241530235

Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program

NIOSHTIC-2 Search
Silica and Silica-Induced Lung Diseases. Castranova, Wallace, & Vallyathan, eds. CRC Press.

IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Volume 100, Part C
In March 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) convened a group of experts to re-evaluate the carcinogenicity of all IARC Group 1 metals, particles, and fibers. Crystalline silica was one of the particles re-evaluated and subsequently reaffirmed as a known human carcinogen. The results of this review are published in IARC monograph, Volume 100, Part C.

Previous monograph: IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Vol. 68, Silica, Some Silicates, Coal Dust and Para-Aramid Fibrils [PDF - 40 KB]

Conference Proceedings

Proceedings of the VII International Pneumoconioses Conference Part I
NIOSH Publication No. 90-108 Part I (1990)

Proceedings of the VII International Pneumoconioses Conference Part II
NIOSH Publication No. 90-108 Part II ( 1990)

University Resources

Construction Workers should know: Silica - It's more than dust
University of Washington
It is a website designed to help those in the construction industry anticipate and control silica exposures.

Guides for Managing Crystalline Silica Control Programs in Construction [PDF - 189 KB]
Mount Sinai Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Hunter College, City University of New York
The Blueprint Guides are designed to aid construction managers in planning, implementing and integrating health hazard control programs for crystalline silica and include information about work practice controls, exposure assessment, and toolbox talks. Please note: The ACGIH Threshold Limit Value for crystalline silica reported in this 2004 document is out-of-date because it was later reduced.

Disease: Case Studies: Silicosis and Silicatosis
University of California—San Francisco's Practical Pathology of Chest Disease

Complicated Silicosis
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's Thoracic Radiology Teaching Files

Construction Site Dust, Silica, & Silicosis Prevention [PDF - 28 KB]
University of Cincinnati, University Health Services Advisory No. 29.3

Governmental Resources - U.S. and non-U.S.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Silica, Crystalline Topic Page
OSHA Crystalline Silica Topic Page that includes English and Spanish resources. The OSHA Silica eTool link provides access to an interactive, Web-based training tool for guidance in determining if silica is present in your workplace and complying with the OSHA standard for respirable crystalline silica.
En Español

MSHA's Silicosis Prevention
En Español

COSHH Essentials, Crystalline Silica (United Kingdom)
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Essentials are a series of free publications from the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (HSE). COSHH Essentials guidance sheets for control of crystalline silica dust are available for download (see brick and tile making, construction, ceramics, foundries, manufacturing, quarries, stonemasons, and slate works).

COSHH Essentials Spanish en Español (United Kingdom)

Time to Clear the Air
United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (HSE) video on YouTube. The video demonstrates how to use water to prevent exposure to respirable crystalline silica while using a powered saw to cut a curb.

California Department of Industrial Relations: Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH)
Health alert in the granite countertop fabricating industry.

EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment: Health Effects of Inhaled Crystalline and Amorphous Silica

Government of Manitoba Canada - Safe Sandblast Cleaning [PDF - 115 KB]

State of New Jersey, Department of Health and Senior Services: Video Exposure Monitoring New
Video exposure monitoring (VEM) project technique that uses a direct-reading measurement to test a worker's exposure while performing a task as it is being recorded on videotape.

Dry Cutting and Grinding is Risky Business [PDF - 142 KB]
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Occupational Health Surveillance Program
En Español

New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Silica, quartz [PDF - 40 KB]
En Español

New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Silica, cristobalite [PDF - 38 KB]
En Español

Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program

U.S. Geological Survey: Silica Statistics and Information

OSHA Consultation Service

State Silicosis Program Contacts

Occupational Respiratory Disease Surveillance Topic Page—State-Based Surveillance Programs
This site contains information on NIOSH cooperative agreements to various state health departments to develop models for state-based and condition-specific surveillance and preventive intervention.

Occupational Respiratory Disease Surveillance Topic Page—State-Based Surveillance: Silicosis
This site contains information on silicosis surveillance systems from 1988 to the present maintained by Michigan and New Jersey.

Other Resources

American Lung Association Fact Sheet: Occupational Lung Disease

American Lung Association Fact Sheet: Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Fibrosis

American Thoracic Society -

Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) Position Statements

Center to Protect Workers' Rights Hazard Alert: Silica in Abrasive Blasting and Rock Drilling [PDF - 16 KB]

Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC): Silica

International Chemical Safety Cards
The ICSCs project is an undertaking of the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) a joint activity of three cooperating International Organizations: namely the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Labour Office (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). An ICSC summarizes essential health and safety information on chemicals for their use at the "shop floor" level by workers and employers in factories, agriculture, construction and other work places.

NIOSH Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS)
RTECS is a compendium of data extracted from the open scientific literature. Toxicity data includes: (1) primary irritation; (2) mutagenic effects; (3) reproductive effects; (4) tumorigenic effects; (5) acute toxicity; and (6) other multiple dose toxicity. Specific numeric toxicity values such as LD50, LC50, TDLo, and TCLo are noted as well as species studied and route of administration used.

Third International Symposium on Silica, Silicosis, Cancer, and Other Diseases
Supplemento 2002

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