Silicosis in Mica Mining in Bihar, India.
India supplies the world with a large proportion of its high-grade sheet mica and the bulk of it comes from the Bihar mica field. In 1951 the production amounted to 195, 000 cwt. There are about 27, 000 mine workers in the industry, and of these 16, 500 work underground. The mica miners are exposed to rock dust with a high content of free silica, and earlier enquiries have suggested that they ...