Air emissions from Wagerup alumina refinery and community symptoms: an environmental case study

Commissioning of a liquor burner at Wagerup alumina refinery gave rise to complaints of malodor and irritation among employees. Subsequently, community members complained about odor and various health issues. Some employees and community members were diagnosed by general practitioners as having multiple chemical sensitivity. After implementation of emission controls, the situation improved; however, community concerns lingered. This paper describes this experience and summarizes several recent investigations including air dispersion modeling, health risk assessment, ambient air quality monitoring, and complaints analyses. It is concluded that refinery emissions currently present negligible risks of acute or chronic health effects including cancer. Communication of these findings has been generally well received, but modifying the perception of risk among some elements of the community has been difficult. Organizations need to effectively address both technical and perception of risk issues.