Full article: Reported exposures to respirable crystalline silica
Introduction. Silica consists of silicon dioxide (SiO 2) and occurs in crystalline and non-crystalline (amorphous) forms (NIOSH Citation 2002).Crystalline silica, also referred to as "free" silica, is characterized by SiO 2 molecules oriented in a fixed pattern, in contrast to amorphous silica, which is defined by a random molecular arrangement …