Assessment of the quality of life related to the health of workers in the aluminium industry with broncholuminal diseases

Introduction. Chronic occupational disease of the bronchopulmonary system can significantly impact the quality of life of patients. The aim of the study is to assess the quality of life associated with the health of workers with bronchopulmonary pathology in the aluminium industry. Materials and methods. The study involved 130 men with occupational pathology of the respiratory system (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), bronchial asthma (BA), chronic non-obstructive bronchitis (CNOB) and a combination of COPD + BA) aged 43 to 72 years (mean age 59.7 ± 8.4 years). The comparison group included 84 men - residents of the Irkutsk region (the average age was 50.2 ± 7.2 years), comparable with patients in social conditions and not in contact with harmful production factors. The health-related quality of life (HRQL) was assessed according to the Russified modification of the SF-36 method, respiratory function using spirometry. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the software package “Statistica 6.0”. Results. Assessment of the quality of life of patients with occupational chronic bronchopulmonary pathology revealed low values of assessments on all scales of HRQL, both in the group as a whole (p <0.05) and depending on the nosological form (p < 0.001). Taking into account the severity of spirometric data, it was found that in grade III - the intensity of pain (36 (22-41) points) was more pronounced than in groups I (41 (41-55) points) and II (41 (22-42) ) points) degrees of severity. Conclusion. The data obtained indicate that bronchopulmonary pathology harms the HRQL, determining the low total physical and mental health (33.0 ± 3.9 and 45.1 ± 4.8 points, respectively), causing low physical and mental well-being can be an obstacle to normal social functioning.

Taxonomy, Saving Potentials and Key Performance Indicators for Energy End-Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Aluminium Industry and Aluminium Casting Foundries

Increasing energy efficiency within the industrial sector is one of the main approaches in order to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The production and processing of aluminium is energy and greenhouse gas intensive. To make well-founded decisions regarding energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigating investments, it is necessary to have relevant key performance indicators and information about energy end-use. This paper develops a taxonomy and key performance indicators for energy end-use and greenhouse gas emissions in the aluminium industry and aluminium casting foundries. This taxonomy is applied to the Swedish aluminium industry and two foundries. Potentials for energy saving and greenhouse gas mitigation are estimated regarding static facility operation. Electrolysis in primary production is by far the largest energy using and greenhouse gas emitting process within the Swedish aluminium industry. Notably, almost half of the total greenhouse gas emissions from electrolysis comes from process-related emissions, while the other half comes from the use of electricity. In total, about 236 GWh/year (or 9.2% of the total energy use) and 5588–202,475 tonnes CO2eq/year can be saved in the Swedish aluminium industry and two aluminium casting foundries. The most important key performance indicators identified for energy end-use and greenhouse gas emissions are MWh/tonne product and tonne CO2-eq/tonne product. The most beneficial option would be to allocate energy use and greenhouse gas emissions to both the process or machine level and the product level, as this would give a more detailed picture of the company’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

China’s aluminium sector and prospects of global aluminium industry

Using statistical data, this paper analyzes the evolution, current status and prospects of China’s aluminium industry: sufficiency of raw materials, bauxite mining, alumina production, capacity utilization, primary aluminium output, technological development. The analysis confirms that China will maintain its leading position at the global aluminium market in the long term. Thus, China will remain the world’s biggest importer of bauxites and alumina, the leading producer of alumina and primary aluminium, a big exporter of semi-finished products and aluminium compounds with a high added value. The growth of the country’s aluminium sector is a typical example of China’s global economic dominance policy — i. e. imports of raw materials, rising production and exports of final products, which are sweeping the national and international markets thanks to breakthrough technology and competitive prices. Being the key player at the global market for non-ferrous metals (primarily, aluminium), China, on one hand, generates an initial demand for them by using them in manufacturing and, on the other hand, the country is interested in low and stable prices. The main advantages of China’s aluminium industry include its large scale, low energy consumption, the capacity of the steadily growing internal market, available production facilities with a low wear level, a developed transport infrastructure and port facilities, an aggressive merge policy exercised at both the national and international markets, the government’s flexible currency policy, quick decision making, a high economic mobilization discipline. In the long run, only primary aluminium producers of comparable size and technology status (both the existing and the projected ones) will be able to survive the competition with their Chinese peers.