Caustic Mist Exposure and Respiratory Outcomes in a Cohort Study of Alumina Refinery Workers Benke, G, Del Monaco, A, Dennekamp, M, Dimitriadis, C, Gwini, Stella May, De Klerk, N, Musk, AW, Fritschi, L, Abramson, MJ and Sim, MR 2021, Caustic Mist Exposure and Respiratory Outcomes in a Cohort Study of Alumina Refinery Workers, Annals of Work Exposures and Health, vol. 65, no. 6, pp. 703-714, doi: 10.1093/annweh/wxaa145. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Caustic Mist Exposure and Respiratory Outcomes in a Cohort Study of Alumina Refinery Workers Author(s) Benke, G Del Monaco, A Dennekamp, M Dimitriadis, C Gwini, Stella May orcid.org/0000-0002-0295-4575 De Klerk, N Musk, AW Fritschi, L Abramson, MJ Sim, MR Journal name Annals of Work Exposures and Health Volume number 65 Issue number 6 Start page 703 End page 714 Total pages 12 Publisher Oxford University Press Place of publication Oxford, Eng. Publication date 2021 ISSN 2398-7308 2398-7316 Keyword(s) alumina industry caustic mist exposure assessment peak exposure respiratory symptoms Summary A common chemical exposure in alumina refining is caustic mist. Although recognized as a strong airways irritant, little is known of the chronic respiratory effects of caustic mist in alumina refining. A suitable metric for caustic mist exposure assessment in alumina refining for epidemiological purposes has not been identified. Peak exposure is likely to be important, but is difficult to assess in epidemiological studies. In this study, we investigate the respiratory effects of caustic mist in an inception cohort (n = 416) of alumina refinery workers and describe the development and use of a peak exposure metric for caustic mist. We then compare the results with a metric based on duration of exposure. Participants were interviewed annually about respiratory symptoms and had a lung function test. Job history data were collected from each interview and levels of caustic mist were measured periodically by air monitoring. We found a weak association between the caustic mist peak exposure metric and reported cough (P for linear trend = 0.079) with the highest peak exposure group odds ratio = 2.32 (95% confidence interval: 1.27, 4.22). For lung function, we found declines in the forced expiratory volume in 1 second and forced vital capacity for changes in annual and absolute lung function for both metrics of exposure, but only the ratio of absolute lung function was statistically associated with an increasing duration of caustic exposure (P for linear trend = 0.011). In this cohort, we did not observe an association with respiratory symptoms or consistent decrements in lung function. There was little difference between the exposure metrics used for investigation of the chronic effects from caustic mist. Language eng DOI 10.1093/annweh/wxaa145 HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30158840 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Medicine Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges   Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 19 Nov 2021, 12:57:45 EST Fri, 19 Nov 2021, 14:47:13 EST Fri, 19 Nov 2021, 14:51:19 EST Fri, 26 Nov 2021, 15:12:51 EST Tue, 22 Feb 2022, 13:59:14 EST Tue, 22 Feb 2022, 14:32:39 EST Tue, 22 Feb 2022, 14:36:50 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 8 Abstract Views, 0 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Fri, 19 Nov 2021, 12:57:45 EST