Evaluation of a preventive program to reduce sensitization at a beryllium metal, oxide, and alloy production plant.

OBJECTIVE We evaluated a workplace preventive program's effectiveness, which emphasized skin and respiratory protection, workplace cleanliness, and beryllium migration control in lowering beryllium sensitization. METHODS We compared sensitization prevalence and incidence rates for workers hired before and after the program using available cross sectional and longitudinal surveillance data. RESULTS Sensitization prevalence was 8.9% for the Pre-Program Group and 2.1% for the Program Group. The sensitization incidence rate was 3.7/1000 person-months for the Pre-Program Group and 1.7/1000 person-months for the Program Group. After making adjustments for potential selection and information bias, sensitization prevalence for the Pre-Program Group was 3.8 times higher (95% CI = 1.5 to 9.3) than the Program Group. The sensitization incidence rate ratio comparing the Pre-Program Group to the Program Group was 1.6 (95% CI = 0.8 to 3.6). CONCLUSIONS This preventive program reduced the prevalence of but did not eliminate beryllium sensitization.