YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO THE TOXLINE (1981 FORWARD, NON-ROYALTY) FILE. ==BERYLLIUM EXPOSURE== 2 AUTHOR Stange AW AUTHOR Hilmas DE AUTHOR Furman FJ TITLE Possible health risks from low level exposure to beryllium. SOURCE Toxicology; VOL 111, ISS 1-3, 1996, P213-24 ABSTRACT The first case of chronic beryllium disease (CBD) at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Rocky Flats) was diagnosed in a machinist in 1984. Rocky Flats, located 16 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado, is part of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons complex. Research and development operations using beryllium began at Rocky Flats in 1953, and beryllium production operations began in 1957. Exposures could have occurred during foundry operations, casting, shearing, rolling, cutting, welding, machining, sanding, polishing, assembly, and chemical analysis operations. The Beryllium Health Surveillance Program (BHSP) was established in June 1991 at Rocky Flats to provide health surveillance for beryllium exposed employees using the Lymphocyte Proliferation Test (LPT) to identify sensitized individuals. Of the 29 cases of CBD and 76 cases of beryllium sensitization identified since 1991, several cases appear to have had only minimal opportunistic exposures to beryllium, since they were employed in administrative functions rather than primary beryllium operations. In conjunction with other health surveillance programs, a questionnaire and interview are administered to obtain detailed work and health histories. These histories, along with other data, are utilized to estimate the extent of an individual's exposure. Additional surveillance is in progress to attempt to characterize the possible risks from intermittent or brief exposures to beryllium in the workplace. 24 AUTHOR Ward E AUTHOR Okun A AUTHOR Ruder A AUTHOR Fingerhut M AUTHOR Steenland K TITLE A mortality study of workers at seven beryllium processing plants. SOURCE Am J Ind Med; VOL 22, ISS 6, 1992, P885-904 ABSTRACT The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has found that the evidence for the carcinogenicity of beryllium is sufficient based on animal data but "limited" based on human data. This analysis reports on a retrospective cohort mortality study among 9,225 male workers employed at seven beryllium processing facilities for at least 2 days between January 1, 1940, and December 31, 1969. Vital status was ascertained through December 31, 1988. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for lung cancer in the total cohort was 1.26 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12-1.42); significant SMRs for lung cancer were observed for two of the oldest plants located in Lorain, Ohio (SMR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.28-2.19) and Reading, Pennsylvania (SMR = 1.24; 95% CI = 1.03-1.48). For the overall cohort, significantly elevated SMRs were found for "all deaths" (SMR = 1.05; 95% CI = 1.01-1.08), "ischemic heart disease" (SMR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.01-1.14), "pneumoconiosis and other respiratory diseases" (SMR = 1.48; 95% CI = 1.21-1.80), and "chronic and unspecified nephritis, renal failure, and other renal sclerosis" (SMR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.00-2.12). Lung cancer SMRs did not increase with longer duration of employment, but did increase with longer latency (time since first exposure). Lung cancer was particularly elevated (SMR = 3.33; 95% CI = 1.66-5.95) among workers at the Lorain plant with a history of (primarily) acute beryllium disease, which is associated with very high beryllium exposure. The lung cancer excess was not restricted to plants operating in the 1940s, when beryllium exposures were known to be extraordinarily high. Elevated lung cancer SMRs were also observed for four of the five plants operating in the 1950s for workers hired during that decade. Neither smoking nor geographic location fully explains the increased lung cancer risk. Occupational exposure to beryllium compounds is the most plausible explanation for the increased risk of lung cancer observed in this study. Continued mortality follow-up of this cohort will provide a more definitive assessment of lung cancer risk at the newer plants and among cohort members hired in the 1950s or later at the older plants. Further clarification of the potential for specific beryllium compounds to induce lung cancer in humans, and the possible contribution of other exposures in specific processes at these plants, would require a nested case-control study. We are currently assessing whether available industrial hygiene data would support such an analysis. 47 AUTHOR Kriebel D AUTHOR Sprince NL AUTHOR Eisen EA AUTHOR Greaves IA TITLE Pulmonary function in beryllium workers: assessment of exposure. SOURCE Br J Ind Med; VOL 45, ISS 2, 1988, P83-92 ABSTRACT The inhalation of beryllium causes a serious lung disease characterised by pronounced radiographic and functional impairments and occurs in workers engaged in the extraction and manufacture of the metal. This paper describes the beryllium exposure levels and refining processes in a large beryllium factory operating since the 1930s. Lifetime beryllium exposure histories were estimated for the 309 workers present at a health survey conducted in 1977. Beryllium exposure levels in the plant were high for many years, with some estimated exposure levels in excess of 100 micrograms/m3. As late as 1975, there were exposures to beryllium above 10 micrograms/m3 in some jobs. After about 1977, the plant was in compliance with the permissible exposure limit of 2.0 micrograms/m3. The median cumulative exposure in this cohort was 65 micrograms/m3-years and the median duration of exposure was 17 years. From these data a series of exposure parameters, functions of the exposure histories that characterise biologically important dimensions of exposure were calculated for each worker. 68 AUTHOR Bencko V AUTHOR Vasil'eva EV TITLE Hygienic and toxicological aspects of occupational and environmental exposure to beryllium. SOURCE J Hyg Epidemiol Microbiol Immunol; VOL 27, ISS 4, 1983, P403-17 ABSTRACT As the production of missile, nuclear devices and electronics grew and modern industrial technologies emerged the risk of the occupational exposure to beryllium has become increasingly common and widespread. The environmental burden of beryllium is also on the increase, not only as a result of emissions from plants producing and processing beryllium, or its alloys and compounds, but also from burning coal of higher beryllium content in some localities. This article discusses primarily the hygienic and toxicologic aspects of beryllium and its threat to human health. The following topics are included in this review: occurrence, production and uses of beryllium; its metabolism and experimental toxicology; clinical toxicology and pathogenesis of berylliosis; hygienic and epidemiologic aspects of berylliosis; berylliosis treatment and prevention. Berylliosis is here characterized as a disease combining clinical manifestations of pneumosclerosis, allergy to beryllium and, in its granulomatous form, autoimmune reactions. Importantly, the available technical means and measures can ensure that the both occupational and environmental exposure to beryllium can be kept below the established MAC values. If occasionally impossible, special preventive measures should be adopted. It is essential that all persons with allergy be prophylactically excluded from work at risk of exposure to beryllium.