Health, beryllium compounds

The major toxicological effects of beryllium are on the lung. Acute exposure to soluble beryllium compounds (e.g., fluoride, an intermediate in the ore extraction process) irritates the entire respiratory tract, may produce acute chemical pneumonitis, and can result in fatal pulmonary edema. Hypersensitivity, which appears to be mediated by the immune system, may also occur following exposure. This means that future exposure to beryllium may produce health effects at concentrations lower than those generally associated with the effect (the individual becomes much more sensitive to beryllium). 

Fish do not accumulate beryllium from water into their bodies to any great extent. A major portion of beryllium in soil does not dissolve in water but remains bound to soil, so it is not very likely to move deeper into the ground and enter groundwater. In the environment, chemical reactions can change the water-soluble beryllium compounds into insoluble forms. In some cases, water-insoluble beryllium compounds can change to soluble forms. Exposure to water-soluble beryllium compounds in the environment, in general, will pose a greater threat to human health than water-insoluble forms. 

Reeves 1991a). The intact skin presents a relatively good barrier to beryllium, and insoluble compounds of beryllium have been shown to penetrate the skin only after trauma. Soluble beryllium compounds can cause local irritation, but systemic absorption is thought to be minimal. Similarly, absorption through the gastrointestinal tract is minimal and a U.S. Public Health Service study (Hyslop etal. 1943) established that only 0.006% of ingested beryllium was absorbed. The absorption of beryllium occurs mainly in the acid environment of the stomach. Once the beryllium passes into the alkaline intestine, it becomes precipitated as a phosphate and is excreted in the feces (Vorwald and Reeves 1959). 

VoRWALD AJ and Reeves AL (1959) Pathologic changes induced by beryllium compounds experimental studies. Arch Ind Health 19 190-199. 

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. 

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. 

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

The big environmental and health concerns led to the avoidance of many substances that have been used in the past in p5TOtechnic mixtures. These include beryllium, cadmium, mercury, chromates, lead compounds, and many others. 

The primary routes of potential human exposure to coke oven emissions are inhalation and dermal contact. Occupational exposure to coke oven emissions may occur for those workers in the aluminum, steel, graphite, electrical, and construction industries. Coke oven emissions can have a deleterious effect on human health. Coke oven emissions contain literally several thousand compounds, several of which are known carcinogens and/or cocarcinogens including polycyclic organic matter from coal tar pitch volatiles, jS-naphthylamine, benzene, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromate, lead, nickel subsulfide, nitric oxide, and sulfur dioxide. Most regulatory attention has been paid to coal tar pitch volatiles. 

Special problems are, of course, created by the general use of particularly toxic elements, such as antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, lead, mercury and thallium, in our society. The production and use of these elements and their compounds is inevitably associated with some release into the environment and there are public health problems in factories and laboratories arising at the initial stage of dispersion. Such problems may be regarded as primary problems of environmental pollution. They are often acute since they may involve direct exposure to a highly toxic element, or one of its compounds, before it has been substantially diluted in the environment. For example. 

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