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Published in Charles Polk, Elliot Postow, CRC Handbook of Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields, 2019
A number of surveys has suggested an association between working in high strength electric and/or magnetic fields and the incidence of cancer.108-111 None of these studies has measured an electric or a magnetic field; each is, in essence, a letter to the editor, and each has some sort of statement to the effect that electric or magnetic fields may cause cancer. They are also not internally consistent, for example, for the Wright et al.109 and Coleman et al.,111 reports the proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs) for telegraph operators are 0 and 246, respectively. Consider, for example, the leukemia mortality study by Milham108 of white males in the state of Washington from 1950 to 1979. There is a total of 196 deaths over a 30-year period for 11 different job categories, or 0.59 deaths per year per category. This amounts to being an extraordinarily small study. Aluminum workers are reported to have a very high PMR, but aluminum smelting also may involve the production of some fairly toxic fumes. Welders, in this study, do not have a high incidence of leukemia; their PMR is 56 to 67 and is the lowest in the 11 job categories. Yet, arc welders hold in (heir hand a device which undoubtedly has a very high magnetic field associated with its operation; arc welding generally involves electric currents up to 50 A. Thus, if one tries to "guestimate" exposure to say, a magnetic field, welders should be "high" for exposure, yet they have a low PMR. In addition to the Washington State study, Petersen and Milham112 also did a comparable study for California white males from 1959 to 1961: there were no significant differences for lineman (PMR 45), electricians (PMR 100), electrical engineers (PMR 92), and welders and flame cutters (PMR 118). On the other hand, foresters and conservationists had a PMR of 209 for the incidence of leukemia.
Study on the performance of petroleum coke after electrolytic desulfurization in NaBr-CH3COOH system
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2021
Yong Zhang, Qi Yu, Huanhuan Wang, Mingxu Zou
Petroleum coke is a by-product of heavy oil in the petroleum refining process through the coking process. It is an irregularly shaped black block with a porous structure. It is mainly used in aluminum smelting electrodes, and fuels for power generation and heating (Al and Morsi 1992). In recent years, among the crude oil processed by China’s refining industry, the proportion of high-quality crude oil with low sulfur content and low impurity elements has been declining, and the proportion of high-sulfur crude oil has increased, making the proportion of high-sulfur petroleum coke also increasing (Shan et al. 2018). At the same time as China’s coal industry has proposed capacity reduction and sustainable development (Liu et al. 2017), the market demand for low-sulfur and low-sulfur petcoke as an alternative fuel continues to increase, and due to the epidemic, the supply of imported petcoke is tight. The overall supply of low-sulfur petcoke the conflict with demand will intensify, and high-sulfur coke desulfurization is imperative.
Aeromobilities’ extra-sectoral costs: a methodological reorientation
Published in Mobilities, 2020
These figures signal an entire aluminium industry on which civil aviation’s light modernity depends. Problematically, the circulation of this resource, from its raw state as bauxite ore, to smelting plants, to aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing, is hardly a clean process, exacerbated by the concentration of most of its effects in the Global South. Beginning with bauxite mining, Sheller (2014, 17) describes the extraction process as a harmful ‘open pit process that leads to deforestation and leaves behind toxic “red mud” lakes that can overflow and pollute local ground water’. Even the act of aluminium smelting is a highly pollutive activity, which can leave behind long-lasting greenhouse gases and toxic particulates in the atmosphere. With the exception of Australia, all top ten bauxite exporters are now located in the Global South, with China (incidentally also one of the largest markets for new aircraft) taking the top spot, alongside countries like Brazil, Guinea, and Indonesia. At the industrial level, the activities of the world’s largest aluminium producer, Hongqiao Group, have not only laden its home province of Shandong, China with disproportionate air and water pollution (Ng 2016), but also caused widespread ‘environmental damage detrimental to agriculture and water resources’ through the tentacles of its growing offshore-mining network (Aluminium Insider 2019). While aircraft manufacturing is certainly not the sole reason for Hongqiao’s or the Global South’s aluminium woes, these material circuits nonetheless form a crucial part of the multiplicitous relations that civil aviation has entered into. Without these stealth sectors supporting aircraft manufacturing, aviation’s vision of lightness could never have been fulfilled.