“In contrast, the longest nontechnical word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the forty-five letter “pneumon...coniosis,” a disease that has “silico” at its core...but there’s some medical question about whether p45 is a real disease, since it’s just a variant of an incurable lung condition called pneumonoconiosis”
One of the longest words that exists in our current English dictionary poses some of the longest consequences on human health. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (try pronouncing that in 1 breath) is categorized as a lung disease, which is as difficult to cure as it is to pronounce. Before we analyze the disease with a scientific approach, let’s explore the linguistics of the name this disease boasts. The disease’s name derives from a combination of Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes:
Pneumono- "lung", "lung-related" (Greek) ultra- "beyond" (Latin) micro- "small" (Greek) scopic- "looking" (Greek) silico- "like sand" (Latin) volcano- "volcano" (Latin) konis- "dust" (Greek) osis- "condition" (Greek)
Named by the National Puzzlers League in 1935, scientists combined specific root words together to express the description and cause of the disease all in a single word. Convenient right? No. Although it may seem the word educates people about the disease, people had difficulty pronouncing and identifying it, so they began to refer to it as p45 or silicosis for convenience purposes. When all the roots are merged together, it literally reads: “lung-related beyond small looking like sand volcano dust condition”.
Causes:
Scientists and medical professionals have tried to pinpoint the disease’s causes for many years. They discovered that the major cause of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the inhalation of fine, silica dust found in volcanic ash near eruption sites. Silica dust is made of pure silicon dioxide, which irritates the human lungs. The dust becomes embedded into the intricate ducts of the lungs when inhaled and causes white blood cells to release cytokines in response. Cytokines are microscopic proteins that influence the behavior of surrounding cells. After these proteins are unleashed, fibrosis, the excessive growth or scarring of tissues, can occur due to the stimulation of fibroblasts, inflammatory reflex mechanisms. These immune responses would eventually lead to silicon-based radicals and damaged cells.
The pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis disease exists in four major types, ranging from minimal exposure to major inhalation of silica dust. Different amounts of dust and varying lengths of time exposed to it results in the following distinct categories:
Chronic - caused by 20+ years of exposure to small amounts of silica dust Asymptomatic - similar to chronic, but causes no symptoms Acute - caused by short periods of exposure to large amounts of silica dust Accelerated - caused by 5-15 years of exposure to large amounts of silica dust
All categories are caused by the same thing and are not diseases of their own.
Symptoms and Cures:
Although symptoms of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis include, but are not limited to: severe coughing, dryness, hoarseness, breathing difficulties, swelling in the lungs, inflammations, weight loss, appetite loss, chest pains, and a higher chance of developing tuberculosis, there are, unfortunately, no cures for the disease. With such an insufficient amount of knowledge about the disease at their disposal, medical professionals have not been successful with inventing a safe and reliable cure, but there are treatments available for patients to lessen the severity of the symptoms.
To alleviate symptoms, victims of the disease are recommended by medics to consume cough suppressants, antibiotics, anti-tubercular agents and participate in physical therapy. If symptoms reach a point of severity where patients can no longer sustain daily function, they must undergo a lung transplantation. A majority of the victims who acquire this disease usually originate from locations near active volcanic sites or even construction sites.
A Story to Remember
Many people’s experiences with this complicated disease are spread to mourn the past and protect the future, such as this one:
Two brothers, Micha and Jacob, looked after each other and their dog in the last few minutes they had on Earth. Mount St. Helens had just erupted and the volcanic ash began to resemble clouds shading the sun.
Despite the windows being shut tight, volcanic ash seeped into the brothers’ now dusty car and invaded their lungs. Jacob began to cough severely mid-sentence. He asked his brother how to pronounce that word. The long word. The one that made his nose and throat clog with blood. The one that sent burning sensations through their swelling lungs. The one that would soon take their lives away.
14 hours had passed. Jacob didn’t realize that their dog passed away an hour ago and that he would be next. The brothers leaned on each other, coughing and hacking blood into their rags. All Micha could think about was the word he and his friends searched up online. It clung to his memory because of its length and mysterious background.
More time passed and Jacob laid lifeless, so with all the strength and time he had left, Micha wrote a letter to their parents telling them of their deaths. Little did he know that their parents were decaying back home in silica dust. As he stored the letter in the glove compartment, a face stared back at him through the car window, standing tall in the midst of hazy chaos. The face was merely false hope for it was just a statue witnessing two brothers and a dog rot in volcanic ash.
The word was pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
