HEALTH-PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH NICKEL REFINING AND USE

After a brief mention of history and world use the authors review the major hazards to health associated with nickel and its compounds. These include pulmonary and sino-nasal cancer from exposure to the dusts involved in certain, now obsolete, processes, dermatitis and nickel carbonyl poisoning. Brief mention is also made of other less well established or hypothetical health risks mentioned in the nickel context including asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and acute poisoning. In conclusion the authors mention some current work being undertaken in the occupational health field and give sources of further information.