The growing use of artificial stone has seen the emergence of an aggressive, progressive respiratory disease, which is causing silicosis in young people. Dr. Johanna Feary¹ ² joins Thorax's Dr. Kate Diomede in the studio, to discuss. They talk through some the UK's earliest cases, the background to this phenomenon, international response, and the broader history of silicosis as a disease.

Links:

• Artificial stone silicosis: a UK case series
• Relationship between cumulative silica exposure and silicosis: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis 

1. National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK2. Department of Occupational Lung Disease, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK

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