Prevalence of Silicosis in Stone Carving Workers Being
Exposed to Inorganic Dust at Sikhiu District
Nakhonratchasima Province, Thailand; Preliminary Results
Krittin Silanun MD, MSc*, Naesinee Chaiear MD, MMedSc, Ph D*, Wipa Rechaipichitkul MD**
Affiliation :
* Unit of Occupational Medicine, Department of Community Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
** Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Objective : The present research aimed: 1) to find out the prevalence of silicosis in the workers who were exposed to inorganic
dust presumably silica among sand stone workers, 2) to test the sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire related to
respiratory symptoms and 3) to calculate a weighted kappa analysis between the two radiograph readers.
Material and Method: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. The studied samples were a total of 315 workers in
Sikhiu District, Nakhonrachasima province, Thailand. The interviewed questionnaire and chest x-ray were used to identified
silicosis. The ILO classification by B-reader was applied and the grading equal or more than 1/1 is regarded as silicosis.
In addition, sensitivity and specificity of the existing questionnaire were calculated and weight Kappa was used to interpret
the correlation between Air-pneumo and NIOSH B readers.
Results : Among the of 315 workers, 55.9 % were male and the average age was 46 years old (range 17-75). Most of them
(53.2%) work in the job described as cutting the stone in the mountain The symptoms of the respiratory system showed that
53 persons (16.8 %) had wheezing, 41 persons (13.0%) had dyspnea, 29 cases (9.2 %) had cough for more than two weeks.
The prevalence of silicosis was 36.1% (80/315) and the majority of them worked in the stone cutting (33/80). Sensitivity of
questionnaire was 21.2-27.5%. Specificity was 85.5-97.9 percent. Weighted Kappa was 0.6.
Conclusion : The prevalence of silicosis among workers was 36.1 percent. Weighted Kappa between film readers was 0.6.
Criteria for diagnosis silicosis are history of being exposed to silica dust more than 2 years and abnormal chest x-ray
reported as ILO profusion category equal or more than 1/1 by an NIOSH B reader. Criteria of silica dust exposure is: 1 )
cutting sand stone in the mountain or 2) cutting sandstone at home or 3) cracking stone at home or 4) living in sandstone
cutting area; each must last for 8 hours per day.
Keywords : Silicosis, Stone Carving Workers,Air pneumo reader, B reader
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