Tanaka Akiyo, Hirata Miyuki
Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University.
Nihon Eiseigaku Zasshi. 2013;68(2):83-7. doi: 10.1265/jjh.68.83.
Owing to the increasing interest being paid to the issue of the global environment, the production of solar cells has increased rapidly in recent years. Copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) is a new efficient thin film used in some types of solar cell. Indium is a constitutive element of CIGS thin-film solar cells. It was thought that indium compounds were not harmful until the beginning of the 1990s because there was little information regarding the adverse health effects on humans or animals arising from exposure to indium compounds. After the mid-1990s, data became available indicating that indium compounds can be toxic to animals. In animal studies, it has been clearly demonstrated that indium compounds cause pulmonary toxicity and that the dissolution of indium compounds in the lungs is considerably slow, as shown by repeated intratracheal instillations in experimental animals. Thus, it is necessary to pay much greater attention to human exposure to indium compounds, and precautions against possible exposure to indium compounds are paramount with regard to health management.
由于全球环境问题日益受到关注，近年来太阳能电池的产量迅速增加。铜铟镓硒（CIGS）是一种用于某些类型太阳能电池的新型高效薄膜。铟是CIGS薄膜太阳能电池的组成元素。直到20世纪90年代初，人们一直认为铟化合物无害，因为关于接触铟化合物对人类或动物产生不良健康影响的信息很少。20世纪90年代中期以后，有数据表明铟化合物可能对动物有毒。在动物研究中，已经清楚地证明铟化合物会导致肺部毒性，并且铟化合物在肺部的溶解相当缓慢，实验动物经气管内反复滴注的结果表明了这一点。因此，必须更加关注人类接触铟化合物的情况，在健康管理方面，预防可能接触铟化合物至关重要。
