Hong Kong (CNN) -- Ramesh Makwana knew the risks to his health by working in an agate factory, but at $4 a day the rewards were too great. 

Now, after 14 years of breathing in the fine dust created by grinding and polishing the gemstone, Makwana has silicosis, a respiratory disease that swells the lungs. 

"He's thankful to the stone because it helped him survive for so long. But now that he has lost so much, it is also a feeling of anger," Makwana told CNN through an interpreter, Mohit Gupta, the co-ordinator for the Occupational, Environmental Health Network of India. 

"He has lost his parents to it, and he himself knows he's going to die some day," he said. 

It's not known how many other workers in Asia are suffering from occupational diseases, but the Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC) has warned that the region is facing an epidemic. 

The last estimate on work-related diseases in Asia was released by the International Labor Organization in 2008. It estimated that more than 1.1 million people in Asia were dying each year. 

"One-point-one million is a really high number, but even then we're not sure, we think it may be a really conservative number," said Sanjiv Pandita, Executive Director of the AMRC. 

Frustrated by the lack of official records, Pandita and his team set out to find the true extent of the problem in six Asian countries: China, India, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. 

A report released ahead of this year's International Workers' Memorial Day on April 28, found similar problems in all countries; a lack of official data on the number of cases, partly due to a reluctance to diagnose work-related illness for fear of the financial cost. 
Are there many in Asia that are suffering?
The last estimate on work-related diseases in Asia was released by the International Labor Organization in 2008. It estimated that more than 1.1 million people in Asia were dying each year. 

"One-point-one million is a really high number