ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine2001
Crystalline silica exposure and lung cancer mortality in diatomaceous earth industry workers: a quantitative risk assessment.
Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 119 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk Assessment of Silicosis and Lung Cancer Mortality associated with Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica in Iran.Journal of research in health sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluating the interference potential of minerals in infrared absorbance-based quantification of respirable crystalline silica in mine dusts.Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene · 2026Article
- Assessment of respirable silica in ambient air of Dhaka and evaluation of human health risks.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Risk characterization for silica-related silicosis and lung cancer in communities adjacent to sand and gravel extraction facilities: examining limitations in our current risk methods.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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- Occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica among US metal and nonmetal miners, 2000-2019.American journal of industrial medicine · 2023Article
- Otorhinolaryngologic Evaluation of Brick Kiln Workers: ENT Findings of Brick Kiln Workers.Indian journal of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery : official publication of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India · 2022Article
- Case Report: Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Respiratory Health Among Australian Mine Workers.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Effects of Siliceous Natural Nanomaterials Applied in Combination with Foliar Fertilizers on Physiology, Yield and Fruit Quality of the Apricot and Peach Trees.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Risk assessment for o-toluidine and bladder cancer incidence.American journal of industrial medicine · 2021Article
- Changes in Spirometry Indices and Lung Cancer Mortality Risk Estimation in Concrete Workers Exposed io Crystalline Silica.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2020Article
- Estimating the Impact of Changes to Occupational Standards for Silica Exposure on Lung Cancer Mortality.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2018Article
- Estimating Counterfactual Risk Under Hypothetical Interventions in the Presence of Competing Events: Crystalline Silica Exposure and Mortality From 2 Causes of Death.American journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Contrasting Causal Effects of Workplace Interventions.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2018Article
- Risk Assessment of Exposure to Silica Dust in Building Demolition Sites.Safety and health at work · 2016Article
- Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Longitudinal Characterization of Lung Structure Changes in a Yucatan Miniature Pig Silicosis Model.Toxicologic pathology · 2016Article
- Risk Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica in Small Foundries in Pakdasht, Iran.Iranian journal of public health · 2016Article
- The global variability of diatomaceous earth toxicity: a physicochemical and in vitro investigation.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2015Article
- Evaluation of respirable crystalline silica in high school ceramics classrooms.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo use various exposure-response models to estimate the risk of mortality from lung cancer due to occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust.
methodsData from a cohort mortality study of 2342 white male California diatomaceous earth mining and processing workers exposed to crystalline silica dust (mainly cristobalite) were reanalyzed with Poisson regression and Cox's proportional hazards models. Internal and external adjustments were used to control for potential confounding from the effects of time since first observation, calendar time, age, and Hispanic ethnicity. Cubic smoothing spline models were used to assess the fit of the models. Exposures were lagged by 10 years. Evaluations of the fit of the models were performed by comparing their deviances. Lifetime risks of lung cancer were estimated up to age 85 with an actuarial approach that accounted for competing causes of death.
resultsExposure to respirable crystalline silica dust was a significant predictor (p<0.05) in nearly all of the models evaluated and the linear relative rate model with a 10 year exposure lag seemed to give the best fit in the Poisson regression analysis. For those who died of lung cancer the linear relative rate model predicted rate ratios for mortality from lung cancer of about 1.6 for the mean cumulative exposure to respirable silica compared with no exposure. The excess lifetime risk (to age 85) of mortality from lung cancer for white men exposed for 45 years and with a 10 year lag period at the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard of about 0.05 mg/m(3) for respirable cristobalite dust is 19/1000 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 5/1000 to 46/1000).
conclusionsThere was a significant risk of mortality from lung cancer that increased with cumulative exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust. The predicted number of deaths from lung cancer suggests that current occupational health standards may not be adequately protecting workers from the risk of lung cancer.
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