Silica Awareness : Silicosis has been a recognized disease process for over 400 years.Agricola in his Treatise on Mining, written in 1556 described a pulmonary disease afflicting stonecutters and miners and later by Ramazzini in 1713.Technological advances in the last century, have dramatically increased the dust exposure to the worker due to the high pressure power and air equipment used to in mining, sandblasting and other industrial settings.