Health beryllium

Beryllium (Be) is an alkaline earth metal found in the earth s crust at an approximate concentration of 3 to 5mg/kg it is poisonous and not necessary for human health. Beryllium alloys are lightweight, stiff, and highly electrically conductive. Beryllium as pure metal, Be alloys, and ceramics are used in a wide range of applications, including dental appliances, golf clubs, nonsparking tools, wheelchairs, satellite and spacecraft manufacture, circuit board... 

Inhalation of certain fine dusts may constitute a health hazard. Eor example, exposure to siUca, asbestos, and beryllium oxide dusts over a period of time results ki the potential risk of lung disease. OSHA regulations specify the allowable levels of exposure to kigestible and respkable materials. Material Safety Data Sheets, OSHA form 20, available from manufacturers, provide information about hazards, precautions, and storage pertinent to specific refractory products. 

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. 

The literature relating to the aqueous solution chemistry of beryllium has been covered to the end of 1998. Previous reviews and relevant compilations of data are listed in Table I. The scope of this review will be to consider all the published data, with a particular emphasis on quantitative aspects, with the aim of facilitating a general discussion. A brief section relating to health and safety issues will be found at the end. 

Although health and safety (317) and biochemical aspects (17) of beryllium are beyond the scope of this review, some reference must be made to toxicity hazards. Above all, inhalation of any beryllium-... 

Metals are extremely important not only for chemical reactions but also for the health and welfare of plants and animals. Some examples of metals required for good nutrition, even in trace amounts, are iron, copper, cobalt, potassium, sodium, and zinc. Other metals—for example, mercury, lead, cadmium, barium, beryllium, radium, and uranium—are very toxic. Some metals at the atomic and ionic levels are crucial for the oxidation process that metabolizes carbohydrates for all living cells. 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, US Department of Health, Education and Welfare Criteria for a Recommended Standard... Occupational Exposure to Beryllium, (NIOSH) Pub No 72-10268. 

Agency for Taxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Toxicological Profile for Beryllium, 247pp. US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, 2002... 

Individuals whose jobs expose them to unusually high particulate concentrations are especially susceptible to health problems from the pollutant. For example, men and women who work with the mineral asbestos are very prone to development of a serious and usually fatal condition known as asbestosis, in which fibers of the mineral become embedded in the interstices (the empty spaces within tissue) of the lung. Similar conditions are observed among coal workers who inhale coal dust (pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease) textile workers (byssinosis, or brown lung disease) those who work with clay, brick, silica, glass, and other ceramic materials (silicosis) and workers exposed to high levels of beryllium fumes (berylliosis). 

A number of metals and their compounds have been found to pose health risks to humans, other animals, and plants. When they occur in air, these metals are sometimes regarded as pollutants. Title III of the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act, for example, lists the following elements and their compounds as "hazardous air pollutants antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, and selenium. 

The term heavy metal in environmental chemistry has traditionally been used to describe certain elements and compounds that are hazardous to the health of humans and other animals. Some elements included in this definition are arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury. 

A number of objections have been raised to the use of the term. In the first place, the list of so-called heavy metals usually includes some elements that are not even metals, such as the semimetals arsenic and antimony. Also, some of the "heavy metals" are not really very "heavy" by almost any standard. Beryllium, for example, has an atomic mass of about 9, and aluminum, an atomic mass of about 27. Yet both are often classified as "heavy metals." For these reasons, some authorities now prefer the term toxic metals to the more traditional term heavy metals. Either term can refer to elements in both their free and combined states. The table on pages 120-121 provides an overview of the sources and health effects of some heavy metals,... 

Occupational and environmental poisoning with metals, metalloids, and metal compounds is a major health problem. Exposure in the workplace is found in many industries, and exposure in the home and elsewhere in the nonoccupational environment is widespread. The classic metal poisons (arsenic, lead, and mercury) continue to be widely used. (Treatment of their toxicities is discussed in Chapter 57.) Occupational exposure and poisoning due to beryllium, cadmium, manganese, and uranium are relatively new occupational problems, which present new and previously unaddressed problems. 

Environmental beryllium exposure is not generally thought to be a hazard to human health except in the vicinity of industrial sites where air, water and soil pollution have occurred. 

Separation of Plutonium. The principal problem in the purification of metallic plutonium is the separation of a small amount of plutonium (ca 200—900 ppm) from large amounts of uranium, which contain intensely radioactive fission products. The plutonium yield or recovery must be high and the plutonium relatively pure with respect to fission products and light elements, such as lithium, beryllium, or boron. The purity required depends on the intended use for the plutonium. The high yield requirement is imposed by the price or value of the metal and by industrial health considerations, which require extremely low effluent concentrations. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration several years later issued a proposed new occupational standard for beryllium air-counts. This proposal was highly controversial. 

Camner P, Hellstrom PA, Lundborg M, et al. 1977. Lung clearance of 4-pm particles coated with silver, carbon, or beryllium. Arch Environ Health 32 58-62. 

As indicated in Table 7.6, all hazardous chemicals in electric arc furnace dust are assumed to induce deterministic responses. The possible responses include renal toxicity, effects on the cardiovascular system, dermal or ocular effects, decrease in body weight, hepatic toxicity, and respiratory toxicity. Decrease in body weight is not a response in a particular organ but is assumed to be a health effect of concern. All deterministic responses are assumed to be induced by more than one chemical in the waste. Furthermore, some of the chemicals (barium, beryllium, chromium, and lead) are assumed to induce all responses. 

Okrent and Xing (1993) analyzed the cancer risk resulting from inadvertent intrusion into a RCRA facility for hazardous chemical waste. The facility was assumed to contain waste from production of veterinary pharmaceuticals and other wastes that resulted in concentrations of 1,000 mg kg-1 of arsenic and 100 mg kg 1 of beryllium, cadmium, chromium, and nickel. A scenario for inadvertent intrusion involving permanent site occupancy similar to the scenario used by NRC to develop the Class-A, -B, and -C limits for near-surface disposal of radioactive waste (NRC, 1982b) was used to estimate the human health consequences of the postulated intrusion. 

Environmental Protection Agency, Beryllium Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office, Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1991. 

FishbeinL. 1981. Sources, transport and alterations of metal compounds An overview. I. Arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium and nickel. Environ Health Perspect 40 43-64. 

Recognizing the applicability of XRD to occupational health chemistry, Lennox and Leroux (1) suggested a number of chemical species which would be suitable for XRD analysis arsenic trioxide, beryllium oxide, mica, vanadium oxides, calcium fluoride in ceramic materials, as well as a number of organics such as DDT, lindane and chlordane. Unfortunately, the general application of XRD to the quantitation of industrial hygiene samples has not been realized and the majority of these analyses are restricted to free silica and to a lesser extent asbestos and talc. 

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