Abstract

Powdered alumina has been used in the china industry of Stoke-on-Trent for first or `biscuit' placing for about 30 years. An investigation of 169 placers and oven oddmen, more than half of whom had been working with alumina for more than 15 years, revealed no cases of radiologically manifest pneumoconiosis which could be related to the inhalation of alumina.

The results of the indirect maximum breathing capacity measured in 166 men were perhaps less convincing than the radiological evidence due to the different age structures of the groups examined. However, there was no evidence that the inhalation of alumina used in pottery manufacture causes pulmonary dysfunction.