OBJECTIVES To describe relative hazards in sectors of the beryllium industry, risk factors of beryllium disease and sensitisation related to work process were sought in a beryllium manufacturing plant producing pure metal, oxide, alloys, and ceramics. METHODS All 646 active employees were interviewed; beryllium sensitisation was ascertained with the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation blood te...

Despite its high toxicity, beryllium is widely used because of its unique properties. Beryllium is toxic both as a carcinogen and as the agent that initiates chronic beryllium disease (CBD). CBD, a granulomatous lung disease, is a cellmediated immune response to inhaled beryllium in 6–20% of exposed individuals. Considerable invesitagations into the nature and effects of CBD have been conducted...

The increasing use of beryllium in a variety of industries continues to be a hazard. New cases are still being reported to the UK Beryllium Case Registry, now numbering 60 in the period 1945-1988. The majority of cases follow inhalation which results in acute beryllium disease (chemical pneumonitis) or more commonly chronic beryllium disease--a granulomatous pneumonitis. Granulomatous skin nodu...

BACKGROUND Beryllium exposure occurs in aluminium smelters from natural contamination of bauxite, the principal source of aluminium. AIMS To characterize beryllium exposure in aluminium smelters and determine the prevalence rate of beryllium sensitization (BeS) among aluminium smelter workers. METHODS A population of 3185 workers from nine aluminium smelters owned by four different aluminiu...

Chronic beryllium disease is an occupational lung disease that begins as a cell-mediated immune response to beryllium. Although respiratory and engineering controls have significantly decreased occupational beryllium exposures over the last decade, the rate of beryllium sensitization has not declined. We hypothesized that skin exposure to beryllium particles would provide an alternative route f...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of beryllium sensitization among former and current Department of Defense workers from a conventional munitions facility. METHODS Participants were screened by using Beryllium Lymphocyte Proliferation Test. Those sensitized were offered clinical evaluation for chronic beryllium disease. RESULTS Eight (1.5%) of 524 screened workers were found sensitized t...

CONTEXT Although chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is clearly an immune-mediated granulomatous reaction to beryllium, acute beryllium disease (ABD) is commonly considered an irritative chemical phenomenon related to high exposures. Given reported new cases of ABD and projected increased demand for beryllium, we aimed to reevaluate the patho physiologic associations between ABD and CBD using two c...

The potential hazards from exposure to beryllium or beryllium compounds in the workplace were first reported in the 1930s. The tritiated thymidine beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) is an in vitro blood test that is widely used to screen beryllium exposed workers in the nuclear industry for sensitivity to beryllium. The clinical significance of the BeLPT was described and a standar...

Chronic beryllium disease results from beryllium exposure in the workplace and is characterized by CD4(+) T cell-mediated inflammation in the lung. Susceptibility to this disease is associated with particular HLA-DP alleles. We isolated beryllium-specific T cell lines from the lungs of affected patients. These CD4(+) T cell lines specifically responded to beryllium in culture in the presence of...

1. Male rats were injected intravenously with amounts ranging from 0.08 to 111.0mumoles of [(7)Be]beryllium sulphate/kg. body wt. The distribution in the rat and the subcellular distribution of beryllium in the liver were determined. 2. Within the entire dose range a higher specific activity of beryllium was present in a mitochondrial fraction containing the lysosomes. Purification of this frac...