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Article: Pathologic spectrum and lung dust burden in giant cell interstitial pneumonia (hard metal disease/cobalt pneumonitis): review of 100 cases.(Report)
- Article from:
- Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health
- Article date:
- June 22, 2008
- Author:
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Hard metal disease is usually associated with the inhalation of dusts generated during work with cemented tungsten carbide (WC) and mostly affects workers who manufacture or use high-speed WC saw tips, drill tips, or disks. (1-5) The workers are also exposed to fume or dust from the cobalt used as a binder in the cemented WC metal. Cemented WC is a mixture of WC and cobalt, plus, in some instances, tantalum, titanium, nickel, niobium, and chromium.
Cobalt was used as a glass-coloring pigment as early as 2000 BC. Cobalt was isolated as a metal by G. Brandt in 1742, and later (1780), T. O. Bergman identified it as an element. (6) Karl Schoeter (Berlin, Germany), ...