Effects of indium exposure on respiratory symptoms: a retrospective cohort study in Japanese workers using health checkup data

Background Indium compounds are known health hazards for lung cancer and interstitial pneumonia. Furthermore, they are related to emphysema, alveolar proteinosis, and cholesterol granuloma. In Japan, laws were revised in 2013 to tighten regulations on indium exposure in workplaces. However, its impact on the health of workers who handle indium has not been evaluated. This study aimed to investigate whether subjective respiratory symptoms in these workers have reduced after the 2013 amendment in the regulations. Methods The subjects were workers from certain areas of Japan who had undergone health checkups between January 1, 2013, and June 30, 2015. Indium-handling and non-handling workers were categorized into the exposed and less-exposed groups, respectively. Based on the findings of health checkups during this period, the hazard ratio of subjective respiratory symptoms (cough, sputum production, shortness of breath, and palpitation) and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated with the less-exposed group as the reference. The Prentice-Williams-Peterson model was used for calculation, and a model that adjusted for coarse analysis and potential confounding factors was adopted. Results Overall, 2,561 workers (from 22 companies) who underwent 6,033 health checkups were included. The total person-years were 2,562.8 years, and 162 outcome events occurred. The hazard ratios of the exposed group were 1.65 (95% CI [1.14–2.39]: p = 0.008) and 1.61 (95% CI [1.04–2.50]: p = 0.032) in the crude and adjusted models, respectively. Conclusion Indium-handling workers had a high hazard of the subjective respiratory symptoms than non-indium -handling workers despite stricter regulations on indium exposure in workplaces. This indicates the need for further changes to the legislation to protect the health of workers exposed to harmful substances in workplaces. Further studies including larger diverse cohorts are needed to validate our findings.

Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in mixed valence In5X5Br (X = S, and Se) compounds

We predict that mixed valent indium compounds exhibit a combination of high electrical conductivity, high thermopower, and low thermal conductivity, resulting in a large thermoelectric figure of merit.

Piezoelectric interaction in controlling the effective electron temperature and the non-ohmic mobility characteristics in GaN and other III–V compounds at low lattice temperature

In a compound semiconductor that lacks inversion symmetry, the free electrons interact simultaneously with the piezoelectric and acoustic phonons. This combined interaction principally controls the electrical transport at low lattice temperatures. Again, at low temperatures, the electrons in some of the compounds may be significantly perturbed for comparatively low fields, say, even for a fraction of a Vcm−1 or so, which effectively seems to be high enough, and the material exhibits electrical nonlinearity. Such a perturbed ensemble then attains a field dependent effective electron temperature Te, which exceeds the lattice temperature TL. The relative importance of the piezoelectric interaction in controlling the field dependence of the effective electron temperature, and therefrom, the non-ohmic mobility characteristics have been analyzed here under the condition of low lattice temperature. The numerical results obtained for InSb, InAs, and GaN are studied in detail. When compared with the experiments, the results here seem to give the same qualitative picture with respect to the variation of the non-ohmic mobility with the electric field for the indium compounds. The results, being interesting, stimulate further work in the same field.