Exactly and a point many cannot seem to understand, most occupational diseases are as a whole, caused simply by ignorance : The time to change this corporate ‘for profit over all’ ideology has well past. You take care sir and try not to worry . As with your elders, I am quite sure the heart failure will get you first ! Live long and prosper dude

That shit is mass produced over here in garages and garden sheds, the only substance that does go into every batch of whatever the manufacturers have to hand is the colouring. Taking it is even more dangerous than giving it a label !

My apologies , twas merely a slip of the finger … I shall replace the missing Z and O forthwith.

Thank you for pointing this out, Jings, I hadn’t actually noticed the missing letters !

This is what happens when you play around on small phone screens without your glasses on …ha ha

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Nope… No paywall on this version here dude :-

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/math/a20718322/building-a-time-machine/

This is exactly what the research guys have concluded, whether it be dusty folks in war zones, emergency service personnel or just your ordinary, average everyday dusty dude in the street. The inflammatory response is triggered by a build up of nasties in the body, a combination of toxins, fine particulates and biological pathogens, the end result is immune dysregulation…Bingo!

And again, what you consider to be merely an economic issue is exactly where you seem to be missing the point.

Quarrying is environmentally destructive. It has contamination and pollution issues. It carries health issues. As well as the costly logistics of transporting bulk around the planet. Governments these days no longer wish any company, large or small, to go around tearing rock, in any form - pre ground or otherwise -out of the ground. So your next problem would be sourcing the base materials for your manufactured product legally.

Economically, even if you did manage to quarry,crush,sieve,grade and mix your sand for lets say £1000 a ton. What architect on the planet would specify the use of such an environmentally unfriendly and costly material and what construction company in the world would pay such a price?

Architects are already specifying more sustainable materials and construction techniques are changeing, but at present, people are still destroying the planet and killing each other for sand ! That’s the current economic situation.

Nobody is saying that without a time limit and at great expence sand can not be manufactured, but it is not even that simple.

Firstly : You would have to quarry your rock of preference before crushing, sieving, grading, and more than likely, also having to transport your specific rock grains to be mixed with other types of crushed and graded chips, depending on your sands ultimate purpose.

Secondly : It is not cheap to extract stone from the earth plus quarrying leaves very big holes in the ground! Permission from authorities to open new quarries or pits is not easily obtained in most countries.

Thirdly: Crushing is hazardous, polluting, environmentally destructive and very expensive .

The sand problem has been bubbling away on the back burner for years, hence the many and various ongoing efforts from all around the globe to recycle or create new and innovative construction materials.

Why the world is running out of sand

Our planet is covered in it. Huge deserts from the Sahara to Arizona have billowing dunes of the stuff. Beaches on coastlines around the world are lined with sand. We can even buy bags of it at our local hardware shop for a fistful of small change.

But believe it or not, the world is facing a shortage of sand. How can we possibly be running low on a substance found in virtually every country on earth and that seems essentially limitless?

The problem lies in the type of sand we are using. Desert sand is largely useless to us. The overwhelming bulk of the sand we harvest goes to make concrete, and for that purpose, desert sand grains are the wrong shape. Eroded by wind rather than water, they are too smooth and rounded to lock together to form stable concrete.

The sand we need is the more angular stuff found in the beds, banks, and floodplains of rivers, as well as in lakes and on the seashore. The demand for that material is so intense that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests torn up to get at the precious grains. And in a growing number of countries, criminal gangs have moved in to the trade, spawning an often lethal black market in sand.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand

You could be right on the governments dislike of a popular and profitable imported product!.. But what about RPE ?

RPE will not eliminate disease in cases of extended long term exposure.

RPE has only to be used as ‘The very last resort’…and is only supposed to be used as…‘The very last resort’…and only as…‘The very last resort’ for short periods of time, as…‘The very last resort’

Why do so many people equate the usage of respiratory protection with ‘A Safe Working Environment ?’

In areas where long term usage of such protection is required, an operatives working environment is exactly the opposite of ‘SAFE’ !

There is No Known Safe Working Exposure Limit when working in respirable crystalline silica dust…NONE !

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Do I sound upset ? Crikey! ha ha

Sorry duder ,I am immune to upset and trivialities such as social media comments do not even register as irratation on my ragged toenail scale.

I do attempt to upload the original paper where possible, but when (As is par for the course these days) the publication is behind a paywall and as in this case, without even an abstract ,then the news article has to be the option for the post.

Take care and have an article annoyance free day .

Not my headline and I did not write the article

Here is the actual report ,crikey you have to pay for it !!.. Well what a bummer ,there is the reason for posting the news article instead of the actual report…Happy Now ?

Large Study Links Industrial Solvent in Drinking Water to Parkinson Disease Risk in Camp Lejeune Veterans

Neurologist Samuel Goldman, MD, MPH, had long felt obligated to dive into the question of whether the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that had contaminated the drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune up to the mid-1980s were associated with an increased risk of Parkinson disease.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2805182

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Masks are only supposed to be used as the very last resort ,it matters not a jot if you have a top of the range respirator ,in those conditions workers could put a new filter in their masks every morning and they would still be breathing in dust . No fit is ever perfect and they all leak.

There simply should be no people working in such areas, full stop. Not even if they were kitted out with PAPR respirators and the unit had a regulator specified and fully certified LEV system running 24/7. These are areas where only machines should be employed . But once again it all comes down to production costs and profit…People are cheap. Take care ,stay safe and dust free.

Silica is in many things and widely used everywhere, apart from the obvious dusty trades,sandblasters ,stonemasons,bricklayers,plasters,roofers,painters and decorators, demolition workers frackers ,miners, quarrymen and highway workers.

Plumbers,electricians,refractory workers ,military personnel,tech workers ,lorry and machine drivers ,jewelers ,dental technicians ,farmers,foundry workers,glass workers,horse trainers,potters,metal grinders ,greenhouse gardeners and even teachers of old have been known to succumb to the masons cough ( Which was once known as Potters Rot )and/or one or more of the myriad of silica associated diseases .

( My apologies if I missed anyone out )

Unfortunately there is no known or quantifiable safe occupational limit for silica exposure (Despite what the corporately owned politicians and regulators quote as fact ) and respirators are only supposed to be used as the very last resort ,none are 100% efficient ,they all leak ,hence the coding .

That is exactly how my friend describes his condition only he said people just look like sheep ,which they are. The hospital gave him a yellow shield lanyard and badge to wear when he was first diagnosed which read something like 'If I do not recognise you it is because I suffer from Prosopagnosia ’ He stills wears these on public transport because as he would put it " Nobody has a fuckin clue what Prosopagnosia is but they think I must be really ill so somebody usually gives me a seat "… ha ha

Crikey !That must be very difficult to deal with,I hope you cope and all is well.

I have a friend who developed a similar condition due to a brain injury. From what he tells me he can still see faces as normal just as he did before and can actually recognise some faces as who they are,face to face so to speak ,but photographs are very difficult for him especially group photos ,even of family , to him the faces in his family photographs have recognisably different features, but he does not see in these images anyone he knows,just random people. Quite bizarre ,I suppose every case is different though .

Stay safe ,best wishes and I hope you have a most excellent day ,or night wherever you are .

This is the problem though ,it would take a book to cover all the practical difficulties on how to safely handle any hazardous material on site.

There are fabrication shops these days where humans play no part in the manufacturing process apart from the programming of the machines and pushing a button ,all the cutting is carried out using various methods in sealed units .(Although these yards produce their own serious environmental issues )

What computerised machines in sealed units can not do though is take the prefabricated piece of whatever and install it into it’s intended home ,you need Homo sapiens for this purpose and unfortunately this is where dust becomes airborne.

And that is just on new build or installation projects ,once you enter into the big outside world of restoration,renovation,alterations,conservation, demolition,tunneling,mining,crushing ,hydraulic fracturing …etc etc ,you enter a world where dust has to be created no matter how you handle whatever material has to be removed or altered.

There are thousands of expensive dust reducing safety products out there everything from surfactants to vacuums,not all are practical and none are 100% efficient.

The answer is making sure the workforce is aware of the dangers through training and education,regular health monitoring, and it would also be beneficial to have a functioning safety regulator!