The study, published in Chest, a medical journal for lung specialists, was done by doctors at a hospital for thoracic diseases in Istanbul.
They followed 32 male textile workers who came to their hospital with breathing problems between 2001 and 2009. That year, after news reports of a “silicosis epidemic,” Turkish health authorities banned sandblasting denim.
The men were young, with a mean age of 31. Most were previously healthy; they were screened to rule out damage from tuberculosis or smoking.
They had worked a mean of 66 hours a week for a little over two years each, mostly at small sandblasting shops with fewer than 10 workers.
Six of the workers died, and 16 others had disabling lung damage from breathing the fine sand. The researchers calculated that a typical worker with silicosis had only a 69 percent chance of surviving five years.
Although more former sandblasters will suffer lung deterioration, the new ban increased awareness and “may prevent new silicosis cases in Turkey,” the authors wrote.
Since the blasting serves no purpose other than to satisfy fashion whims, the scientists called for a global campaign against it
.