Beryllium industrial

Mancuso TF Mortality study of beryllium industry workers occupational lung cancer. Environ 21 48-55, 1980... 

Certain beryllium industrial processes and job tasks increase the risk of developing an immune response to beryUium and disease (Table 2) (13,23,24,26,27,29,31,32,48). Although the precise exposure-response relationship for CBD, continues to be the subject of study, it does not appear to be... 

Mancuso TF, el-Attar AA. Epidemiological study of the beryllium industry. Cohort methodology and mortality studies. J Occup Med 1969 11(8) 422 34. 

Before beryllium alloys were developed, the principal use of berryllium was as oxide in the manufacture of refractories, spark plugs, high quality electrical porcelains, and as beryllium nitrate in the fabrication of Welsbach gas mantles. It was not until the early 1930 s, however, that metallurgical improvements created a large enough demand to justify a beryllium industry. Berylliumcopper, with small additions has been, by far, the important alloy. 

Seiler DH, Rice C, Herrick RF, Hertzberg VS. A study of beryllium exposure measurements, part 1 estimation and categorization of average exposures from daily weighted average data in the beryllium industry. Appl Occup Environ Hyg 1996 11 89-97. 

Beryllium is found in some 30 mineral species, the most important of which are bertrandite, beryl, chrysoberyl, and phenacite. Aquamarine and emerald are precious forms of beryl. Beryl and bertrandite are the most important commercial sources of the element and its compounds. Most of the metal is now prepared by reducing beryllium fluoride with magnesium metal. Beryllium metal did not become readily available to industry until 1957. 

A. J. Breslin, ia H. E. Stokinger, ed.. Beryllium, Its Industrial Hygiene Aspects, Academic Press, New York, 1966. 

Beryllium Oxide. Beryllium oxide [1304-56-9], BeO, is the most important high purity commercial beryllium chemical. In the primary industrial process, beryllium hydroxide extracted from ore is dissolved in sulfuric acid. The solution is filtered to remove insoluble oxide and sulfate impurities. The resulting clear filtrate is concentrated by evaporation and upon cooling high purity beryllium sulfate, BeSO 4H20, crystallizes. This salt is... 

Beryllium is principally consumed in the metallic form, either as an alloy constituent or as the pure metal. Consequendy, there is no industry associated with beryllium compounds except for beryllium oxide, BeO, which is commercially important as a ceramic material. BeO powder is available at 154/kg in 1991. 

Tnglycidyl isocyanurate, beryllium and beryllium compounds Cancer epidemiology m coal tar pitch volatile-associated industries Cobalt and cobalt compounds... 

Samples Analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) Metals — Where two or more of the following analytes are requested on the same filter, an ICP analysis may be conducted. However, the Industrial Hygienist should specify the metals of interest in the event samples cannot be analyzed by the ICP method. A computer print-out of the following 13 analytes may be typically reported Antimony, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Vanadium, Zinc. Arsenic — Lead, cadmium, copper, and iron can be analyzed on the same filter with arsenic. 

Beryllium 0.004 0.004 Intestinal lesions Discharge from metal refineries and coalburning factories discharge from electrical, aerospace, and defense industries... 

As a light, strong metal, beryllium holds considerable promise as a useful engineering material, but because of an inherent directional brittleness, a really significant commercial use, e.g. in the aircraft industry, has not proved possible. It has been used to a limited extent in aerospace applications, and it was employed as heat shields for the Project Mercury space capsule. It has also found use in precision guidance systems when fairly pure environmental conditions can be assured. 

The possible employment of beryllium in nuclear engineering and in the aircraft industry has encouraged considerable investigation into its oxidation characteristics. In particular, behaviour in carbon dioxide up to temperatures of 1 000°C has been extensively studied and it has been shown that up to a temperature of 600°C the formation of beryllium oxide follows a parabolic law but with continued exposure break-away oxidation occurs in a similar fashion to that described for zirconium. The presence of moisture in the carbon dioxide enhances the break-away reaction . It has been suggested that film growth proceeds by cation diffusion and that oxidation takes place at the oxide/air interface. ... 

Beryllium is obtained by electrolytic reduction of molten beryllium chloride. The element s low density makes it useful for the construction of missiles and satellites. Beryllium is also used as windows for x-ray tubes because Be atoms have so few electrons, thin sheets of the metal are transparent to x-rays and allow the rays to escape. Beryllium is added in small amounts to copper the small Be atoms pin the Cu atoms together in an interstitial alloy that is more rigid than pure copper but still conducts electricity well. These hard, electrically conducting alloys are formed into nonsparking tools for use in oil refineries and grain elevators, where there is a risk of explosion. Beryllium-copper alloys are also used in the electronics industry to form tiny nonmagnetic parts and contacts that resist deformation and corrosion. 

Aluminum and silicon bronzes are very popular in the process industries because they combine good strength with corrosion resistance. Copper-beryllium alloys offer the greatest strength and excellent corrosion resistance in seawater and are resistant to stress-corrosion cracking in hydrogen sulfide. 

Titanium tetrachloride is produced on an industrial scale by the chlorination of titanium dioxide-carbon mixtures in reactors lined with silica. During the reactor operation, the lining comes into contact not only with chlorine but also with titanium tetrachloride. There appears to be no attack on silica by either of these as the lining remains intact. However, the use of such a reactor for chlorinating beryllium oxide by the carbon-chlorine reduction chlorination procedure is not possible because the silica lining is attacked in this case. This corrosion of silica can be traced to the attack of beryllium chloride on silica. The interaction of beryllium chloride with silica results in the formation of silicon tetrachloride in accordance with the reaction... 

Chemical precipitation is used in porcelain enameling to precipitate dissolved metals and phosphates. Chemical precipitation can be utilized to permit removal of metal ions such as iron, lead, tin, copper, zinc, cadmium, aluminum, mercury, manganese, cobalt, antimony, arsenic, beryllium, molybdenum, and trivalent chromium. Removal efficiency can approach 100% for the reduction of heavy metal ions. Porcelain enameling plants commonly use lime, caustic, and carbonate for chemical precipitation and pH adjustment. Coagulants used in the industry include alum, ferric chloride, ferric sulfate, and polymers.10-12... 

Airborne poisons in the nuclear weapons progam were not limited to radioactive materials released from weapons. The weapons technology involved the use of many exotic materials, some of which were toxic (e.g., beryllium). Hazardous releases of these materials occurred in industrial settings in urban areas and were studied by the Atomic Energy Commission as occupational and public health problems. 

A new area of research concerns exposure assessment for beryllium in the production of nuclear weapons at nuclear defense industries. A safe level of exposure to beryllium is still unknown. Potential explanations include (1) the current exposure standard may not be protective enough to prevent sensitization, or (2) past exposure surveillance may have underestimated the actual exposure level because of a lack of understanding of the complexity of beryllium exposures. Task-based exposure assessment provides information not directly available through conventional sampling. It directly links exposure to specific activity associated with contaminant generation and provides in-depth evaluation of the worker s role in a specific task. In-depth task analysis is being used to examine physical, postural, and cognitive demands of various tasks. 

Some metals are extracted in electrolytic cells. In section 11.3, you saw the extraction of sodium from molten sodium chloride in a Downs cell. Other reactive metals, including lithium, beryllium, magnesium, calcium, and radium, are also extracted industrially by the electrolysis of their molten chlorides. 

As with many other chemicals, beryllium has its positives and negatives. Although it is an important industrial chemical, the handling of beryllium is best left to experienced workers... 

Calcium oxide was used in ancient times to make mortar for building with stone. Both the metal and calcium compounds have many industrial as well as biological uses. Metallic calcium is used as an alloy agent for copper and aluminum. It is also used to purify lead and is a reducing agent for beryllium. 

Wagoner JK, Infante PF, Bayliss DL Beryllium An etiologic agent in the induction of lung cancer, nonneoplastic respiratory disease, heart disease among industrially exposed workers. Environ Res 21 15-34, 1980... 

Beryllium is an important metal alloy used in the nuclear power industry. Its presence in coal and oil results in more than 1250 tons being released into the environment annually from fuel combustion at power plants. Exposure is primarily from inhalation, but skin contact can result in dermatitis. Cigarette smokers also inhale a little beryllium. Initially, beryllium distributes to the liver, but ultimately is absorbed by bone. 

Metals more electronegative than magnesium, like beryllium, zinc, cadmium and mercury, form useful reagents for specific purposes, but the metals themselves are not sufficiently active to form organic derivatives under normal laboratory conditions and are unwanted in the environment since they are toxic. Aluminum compounds are useful for industrial purposes, but their use in the laboratory is insignificant in comparison with Grignard reagents. 

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