Dinman B D
Aluminum Company of America, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
J Occup Med. 1987 Nov;29(11):869-76.
Pulmonary aluminosis is a disease first seen in Germany between 1938 and 1945 which then reappeared in the United Kingdom between 1952 and 1959. All cases were associated with exposure to a submicron-sized aluminum pyrotechnic flake which was lubricated with a non-polar aliphatic oil. Ordinarily, stearic acid, which chemically combines with aluminum to form aluminum stearate, was used as a lubricant to retard surface oxidation during milling of such flake. This new aliphatic lubricant, which simply physically coated the flakes to prevent elemental aluminum oxidation, could be easily washed off of such flakes. In the intracellular milieu, removal of such surface oil permits exposure of oxygen to elemental aluminum; this results in a vigorous exothermic reaction and the potential for tissue damage. It appears that cases occurred only where this oily lubricant was used to manufacture near submicron-sized pyrotechnic flake (ie, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden), but never where similar flake has been manufactured for almost a century using polar lubricants.
肺铝尘沉着病是一种于1938年至1945年间首次在德国发现的疾病，随后于1952年至1959年间在英国再次出现。所有病例都与接触一种用非极性脂肪族油润滑的亚微米级铝烟火薄片有关。通常，硬脂酸会与铝发生化学反应形成硬脂酸铝，在研磨这种薄片时用作润滑剂以延缓表面氧化。这种新的脂肪族润滑剂只是简单地物理包覆薄片以防止元素铝氧化，很容易从这些薄片上洗掉。在细胞内环境中，这种表面油的去除会使氧气暴露于元素铝；这会导致剧烈的放热反应并有可能造成组织损伤。似乎只有在使用这种油性润滑剂制造近亚微米级烟火薄片的地方（即英国、德国、瑞典）才出现病例，而在使用极性润滑剂制造类似薄片近一个世纪的地方从未出现过病例。
