Details - Public Health Image Library(PHIL)

ID#:

9431

Caption:

This 1958 historical photograph was provided by the Center for Disease Control's (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and depicted a worker using the blow-off booth in a Lompoc, California diatomaceous earth processing plant. The dust blown off by the air hose would be picked up by the downdraft exhaust system under the floor grating. This would reduce the amount of dust the worker brought home on his clothes. The image originally appeared in a U.S. Public Health Service Publication No. 601, in an article entitled,“Pneumoconiosis in Diatomite Mining and Processing”, 1958. Inhaled dust or other airborne particulate materials containing silica that is deposited in the lungs, will cause the lung tissue to react by creating generalized nodular fibrotic changes, and is known as pneumoconiosis, which is also known as pneumosilicosis, or grinders’ disease.