Baritosis is one of the benign pneumoconioses in which inhaled particulate matter lies in the lungs for years without producing symptoms, abnormal physical signs, incapacity for work, interference with lung function, or liability to develop pulmonary or bronchial infections or other thoracic disease. Owing to the high radio-opacity of barium, the discrete shadows in the chest radiograph are ext...

Four men who mined barytes in Scotland and who developed pneumoconiosis are described. Three developed progressive massive fibrosis, from which two died; and one developed a nodular simple pneumoconiosis after leaving the industry. The radiological and pathological features of the men's lungs were those of silicosis and high proportions of quartz were found in two of them post mortem. The quart...

Tissue removed from nine new cases from 18 hours to 20 weeks after injury by a golf ball contained crystalline and other foreign material to which there was a mild inflammatory reaction followed by macrophagic activity and fibrosis. Optical and electron probe analysis showed that the crystalline material was crushed barytes containing small quantities of muscovite as is typical in natural depos...