Corpus Christi, TX — Harrel Horton filed a lawsuit against Lone Star Industries, manufacture of synthetic sand, claiming he contracted a serious lung disease known as Silicosis, during his career as a sandblaster. Horton claims Lone Star should have taken steps to better protect workers like him from inhaling the dangerous abrasive sand. The plaintiff is seeking medical expenses and punitive damages.
Silicosis is a disabling, nonreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease caused by overexposure to abrasive silicon sand known as crystalline silica. Silicosis can also make exposed workers more susceptible to lung infections like tuberculosis.
More than million U.S. workers are exposed to silica dust, and each year more than 250 die from Silicosis. There is no cure for the disease.
(via Corpus Christi Caller Times)
2 responses so far ↓
robin hudson // May 13, 2004 at 12:35 pm
My grandchildren has a sand box and I think the sand is synthetic. can you tell me if it’s harmful to their lungs. If so, why.
Jason Gibson // May 19, 2004 at 3:41 pm
Robin,
I’m the lawyer who handled Mr. Horton’s case. I don’t think there is any such thing as a “synthetic sand.” I don’t know where the paper came up with such a term. There is what’s called a silica sand. Most sand contains a high percentage of silica, which is what can can lung disease. The sand in your grandchild’s sand box should not be harmful because the particle size of the sand is too big to enter the smallest portions of the lung. Sandblaster get silicosis because they blast sand at high pressures against very hard surfaces, which causes the sand to fracture into microscopic particles that are sometimes not even visible to the human eye. It’s these particles that get trapped in the lungs.
Jason Gibson
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