Supervisors info:
Καβαντζάς Νικόλαος, Καθηγητής Ιατρικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Λάζαρης Χ. Ανδρέας, Καθηγητής Ιατρικής, ΕΚΠΑ
Θεοδωράτος Παναγιώτης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Δημόσιας Υγιεινής, ΤΕΙ Αθήνας
Summary:
The diseases of the respiratory system caused from exposure to harmful factors. within workplace, are known since antiquity but have invaded for good in the everyday life during the industrial revolution in the 18th century. The first to systemize the interest towards workers' health problems was Bernadino Ramazzini in his dissertation called “ De Morbis Artificum Diatriba”.
In the first half of the 20th century a congress in Yohannesburg took place, which established silicosis as a separate clinical entity, and first thoughts were brought forward concerning the link of asbestos extraction to a plethora of workers' death cases of those working in mines and charcoal mines. But it wasnt until the '60s that an epidemiological survey proved, beyond contradiction, the causative link between asbestos and mesothelium - a pleura neoplasm.
The illnesses of the respiratory system show common symptoms - non pathogenic to a specific disease - and therefore the diagnosis of workplace diseases are mostly based on the reception of good historical record on the doctor's side. This record, along with the radiological and functional check, will lead to the correct diagnosis and the most suitable therapy when and if possible. And that's because one of the characteristics of these diseases is deterioration even after the taking of preventive measure, the most radical of which being the workers' removal from their posts.
Nowadays workplace bronchitis, an asthma caused by working, but also other workplace linked diseases caused by dust inhale such as silicosis, asbestosis, pleura mesothelioma, anthracosis, berylliosis and byssinosis still bother international community and thus entailing many a worker unable even to retire. Asbestos production, despite national ban, remains at the same levels, in 2015, to the one at the dawn of the century, not having yet been replaced by alternative materials. Thus, given the time duration between exposure and disease, a third asbestos wave is highly imminent.
Likewise in the case of crystal silicon, international community was off guard and was forced to reduce the exposure limit from 0,1 mg/m3 to 0,05 mg/m3. The reason for this reduction was the estimated international silicon production in 2008 fluctuating around to 2,2 million metric tons along with 3,2 million workers in th E.U be exposed to even greater limits.
In Greece, which still undergoes fiscal crisis and social right cuttings, the disability percentage is defined by FEK 4591/Β/27.12.2017, forecasting excessive percentage of disability and in some cases irreversible damage for the sufferers.
Keywords:
Asbestos, Silica, Beryllium, Mesothelioma, Byssinosis
