The therapeutic action of aluminium compounds on the development of experimental lesions produced by pure quartz or mixed dust.

The prophylactic and curative effect of aluminium salts administered as aerosols on the development of lung lesions caused by the dust inhalation of quartz, two coal-quartz mixtures with 17% and 8% silica, respectively, and pure coal, was studied experimentally on rats. It appears that the preventive treatment is very efficient either in the case of pure quartz or coal-quartz mixtures. The curation treatment with regard to pure quartz leads to constant lung weight and reduced rate of collagen formation; the effect is the more evident as the silica content of the dust is higher and becomes nil with pure coal. The effectiveness is slightly increased when aerosols at higher concentrations are used, but the difference is not proportional to the dose. Under these experimental conditions, the aerosols used showed no toxicity.