If Rob Volz ever gets a deep, clear breath these days, he savors it like a man marooned in the desert who gets his hands on a canteen full of water.

For the past two years, Volz, a Clinton resident, has been getting used to the fact that he may never again put more than a couple of good breaths together.

A commercial tile layer for the past nine years, Volz is suffering from a condition called silicosis. The disease, which is brought on when a person inhales large quantities of dust from products such as tile grout and concrete, scars lung tissue and reduces lung capacity.

Volz is a perfect candidate for silicosis. An independent subcontractor, he has rarely used a respirator to protect his lungs and has not used state and federal recommendations for handling the fine, powdery grout with which he does his work. Though he is active and does not smoke, his lungs breathe with about one-third the capacity they once did. And the damage is only getting worse.

“I’m certain that my career is over,” he said.

Once common in the United States when mining and quarry work were bigger industries, silicosis has become rare enough in recent decades that it is seldom studied – even though it can be fatal. Dr. Ronald Green, an Everett pulmonary specialist who is treating Volz, said most of the current researcch on the disease is taking place in South Africa and Indonesia, where work safety rules do not protect miners, stonecutters and others who work with microscopic rock dust.

To have someone in this country’s regulated construction industry walk into his office with a case of silicosis is extremely rare.

“I hardly ever see this at all,” he said last week from his office at the Everett Clinic. “It’s becoming much more unusual in this country.”

He shouldn’t, at least according to Don Lofgren, an industrial hygienist who works for the Washington Industry Safety and Health Administrations (WISHA). Lofgren said WISHA and the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have been promoting the safe handling of crystalline silicates for years. He said state work rules require people in Volz’s business and others that involve this rock dust to use dust suppression methods to provide better worksite air quality.

If his agency caught someone like Volz working without a respirator, a vacuum fan or mixing silicate material without adding water, the behavior would draw a fine. Unfortunately, he said, WISHA inspectors can’t be on every job site.

The number of workman&’s compensation claims related to the disease is low on an annual basis. In 1993, WISHA registered three silicosis claims. In 2000, there were five claims. 2001 brought only one. Payouts for claims in the past two years totalled about $18,500.

But there will be more, especially in New York, where the dusty clean up of the World Trade Center is ongoing. Lofgren said that work is a public health crisis in the making.

“That’s one big silicosis case waiting to happen,” he said.

If continuously aggravated, silicosis can turn into a disease that affects the lungs similarly to emphysema. Volz, who is 35, is at that stage in his disease. Diagnosed with a then-unspecified lung ailment in 1999, Volz said he continued to work. He did not know until last year that his condition was directly related to the work he does.

He said it’s too late to stop now. A father of two children, he said he needs to continue working as long as he can. He said he cannot fully protect himself against silicate dust, since he no longer has the lung power to breathe through a respirator. At this point, he said the one thing he wants to do is make sure others in his business don’t make the mistakes he did.

“There’s a lot more guys coming down with this,” he said.

Keeping uninjured lungs healthy is a simple matter of doing the right research, say Volz, Green, and Lofgren. Both professionals and weekend handymen should read the packages of concrete, plaster and other dry mix, silica-based products they use. They do, generally, carry warning labels. In addition, looking up WISHA work rules is an important step – a step Volz said he did not take until it was too late.

“I didn’t know,” he said.

Volz said he could get back some of his lung capacity if he quits his job and goes through some therapy. However, he does not see himself doing that anytime soon.