A review of the effects of wood dust and vapours at work

There are 350 carpenters in the Seychelles. Most of them do not wear dust masks or safety glasses or overalls. Nor is the dust locally extracted at the machine itself. Three of these carpenters in the single year were suspected having lung cancer. Ultimately two of the diagnoses were confirmed whilst; the third was found to be a pneumoconiasis. The use of modern machinery; which produces very fine dust particles; without the use of the protective apparel which is compulsory in the developed world; is likely to have been an important contributory factor to these 3 mens' respiratory diseases