The outbreak of silicosis has skyrocketed to 5,900 cases since 2007, with Galicia leading the most affected regions.

Orlando worked in a granite quarry, but with the passage of time he began to feel more fatigued than usual. It was harder for him to climb the stairs and he also had respiratory problems. In 2008 he went to an annual medical examination and told the professional that he attended to what was happening to him. The doctor ordered him to have X-rays and the results of these were clear: he had contracted silicosis, an incurable respiratory disease ca…

Silicosis has experienced a spectacular resurgence in the last two decades until it is the first incurable occupational disease with 5,900 cases since 2007. The peak of this serious respiratory ailment, often fatal, was reached last year, with 520 cases, after a constant rise in the last decade. From the thousands of cases of miners who suffered it in the 60s and 70s, silicosis was in regression until its current rebirth in the last two decades.…

Although historically considered a disease of the past associated with mining, cases have increased in recent decades, affecting new industrial sectors, such as the manufacture and handling of quartz agglomerates (or artificial stone), used in kitchen and bath countertops. These circumstances have led different national health agencies to re-evaluate in the last decade the risks of respirable crystalline silica, showing its impact beyond silicos…

Silicosis, an incurable occupational respiratory disease caused by the inhalation of crystalline silica, has re-emerged in Spain over the past two decades with a sharp increase in cases. From 2007 to 2024, 5,900 cases were reported, 520 of them last year, the highest annual number recorded to date, according to data from the National Social Security Institute (INSS).

Silicosis, that incurable respiratory disease caused by the inhalation of crystalline silica and that in the past was linked to mining, has resurfaced in recent years, according to the Ministry of Health. And now it does not affect miners, but workers who manufacture and manipulate quartz agglomerates and in the processing of natural stone (granito and slate, mainly), used mainly for the construction of countertops for kitchen and bathrooms. Als…

Silicosis, an incurable respiratory disease of professional origin caused by the inhalation of crystalline silica and which has been a constant during the decades that coal mining has operated in León, has resurfaced in Spain in the last two decades with a marked increase of cases, producing from 2007 to 2024 a notification of 5,900 parts, 520 of them last year, which represent the annual maximum recorded to the present, according to data from t…