The government should immediately lower workers' exposure to beryllium, Public Citizen and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union (PACE) in a petition filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), because the metal, commonly used in the manufacture of sporting goods, dental equipment and airplane parts, is directly linked to a fatal lung disease.
In their petition, Public Citizen and PACE asked John Henshaw, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, to reduce the "permissible exposure limit" (PEL) for beryllium and beryllium compounds from the current standard of 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) to 0.2 ug/m3.
The current exposure limit is more than five decades old, and while OSHA has admitted that it is so high as to endanger workers, the agency has not acted to lower it. The previous head of OSHA, Charles Jeffress, stated in 1999 that the "permissible exposure limits for beryllium in the workplace now appear to be too high to prevent chronic beryllium disease."
In addition to lowering the PEL, Public Citizen is asking for annual blood testing of all workers exposed to beryllium so that they can be removed from further exposure if necessary.
One recent study showed that almost 10 percent of workers had developed an allergic-like reaction to beryllium (called "sensitization") and 5 to 6 percent had chronic lung disease, both at exposures just 15 percent of the current OSHA standard.
Several workers developed chronic disease within three months of employment. A copy of Public Citizen's petition can be found at:
http://www.citizen.org/hrg/publications/1589.htm
"OSHA's failure to adopt a standard that will protect workers from unnecessary beryllium exposure is unconscionable," said Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group and a co-signer of Public Citizen's petition.
"Every day the agency ignores this issue, tens of thousands of workers are needlessly exposed to this life-threatening hazard." Beryllium is used by a variety of industries, most commonly as an alloy with other metals. Adding 2 percent beryllium to copper increases the strength of the alloy sixfold.
The metal also is extremely light and corrosion-resistant. Potentially hazardous exposure to beryllium can occur even when workers manufacturing products containing beryllium or beryllium compounds inhale only minuscule amounts of beryllium fumes or dust.
Following exposure, some workers become sensitized, which can be detected in a blood test. Each year 10 to 19 percent of sensitized people develop a lung condition known as chronic beryllium disease (CBD). The symptoms include weakness, fatigue, and respiratory and heart failure.
As many as 30 percent of sensitized workers die from CBD or its complications. In addition, a recent study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine confirmed the connection between beryllium exposure and lung cancer.
Within the U.S. government, there is precedent for lowering beryllium concentrations. In January 2000, the Department of Energy (DOE) required the agency and its contractors to establish programs that reduce beryllium exposure to the level Public Citizen is asking for because workers had developed CBD at levels less than the OSHA standard.
"How ironic that OSHA, whose sole purpose is to protect the health of workers, has dropped the ball on the beryllium standard, while the DOE does a better job of protecting its workers from this dangerous exposure," said Lurie.
The current beryllium standard was adopted in 1949 by the Atomic Energy Commission to prevent a more severe disease caused by acute beryllium exposure, and that standard was adopted for all workers in 1970 with the passing of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Despite overwhelming evidence that increased protections against beryllium exposure are necessary, OSHA, which failed to propose a single new chemical standard during the Clinton administration, has failed to upgrade its standard.
Although a 1977 report by a research arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that OSHA reduce the exposure rate for beryllium to 0.5 ug/m3, and the industrial hygienists' national association recommended a level of 0.2 ug/m3 in 1998, OSHA has not yet issued a new standard, despite numerous promises to do so.
"The current beryllium standard is ridiculously outdated and has done little to prevent CBD," said Dave Ortlieb, director of PACE's Health and Safety Department. "American workers should not have to spend another Labor Day worrying whether they will contract a fatal disease that the government should be preventing."
Added Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, "The time for excuses is over. OSHA has failed in the past eight years to do its job of protecting American workers from occupational hazards. The dangers represented by beryllium give the agency a chance to chart a new course."
Public Citizen September 3, 2001
Beryllium was discovered in 1798, but it was not widely used in industry until the 1940s and 1950s. In industrial applications beryllium can be:
Beryllium-Containing Minerals Are Found in Rocks, Coal and Oil, Soil, and Volcanic Dust
From these sources, beryllium is emitted into the air and water by natural processes like erosion and by the burning of coal and oil. According to data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average concentration of airborne beryllium in the United States is very small (0.03 nanogram/cubic meter-a nanogram is one-billionth of a gram).
Many Products and Processes Use Beryllium's Properties
Beryllium metal has been produced for various industrial uses since the late 1950s.
Both structural and instrument grade materials are manufactured, especially for use in aerospace and defense:
Other Beryllium Materials Include Soluble Salts, Alloys, and Oxide
Soluble salts, such as beryllium fluoride, chloride, and sulfate, are used in nuclear reactors, in glass manufacture, and as catalysts for certain chemical reactions.
Beryllium-copper (BeCu) alloys usually contain about 2 percent beryllium, but vary greatly in composition to meet different industrial and consumer needs. Beryllium contributes hardness, strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity, and resistance to corrosion, wear, and fatigue. For example, BeCu springs "bounce back" to their original shape again and again.
Be alloys are used for:
Despite its Usefulness, Beryllium Is Not an Ideal Material
It is expensive and too brittle to work with in some applications.
The most significant disadvantage of beryllium as an industrial material is the toxicity of its dust, fumes, and soluble salts.
Beryllium's brittleness is the down side of its advantageous stiffness. Brittleness also increases the hazards associated with beryllium's toxicity.
Unless ventilation and other controls are used, small particles and chips of insoluble beryllium-containing materials break off during machining and other processes and spread through the air in the work area. Inhalation of these tiny particles is the type of exposure that can lead to chronic beryllium disease.
Beryllium is also used in consumer products, such as televisions, calculators, and personal computers, and in the coating on the inside of fluorescent lights.
Beryllium may also enter the aquatic environment through the weathering of rocks and soils, and through discharges from industrial and municipal operations. Because beryllium tends to exist in solution at pH levels less than about 5.5 (and most rainwater has a pH less than 5), it will also enter into solution and be transported to the Earth's surface via rainwater (Acid Rain).
Beryllium is highly soluble in water, and more toxic in soft water than in hard water.
Beryllium is highly persistent in water with a half-life of greater than 200 days. (The half-life of a pollutant is the amount of time it takes for one-half of the chemical to be degraded.)
Exposure
The general population is potentially exposed to beryllium by inhaling air and consuming food and water contaminated with beryllium residues.
Exposure occurs mainly through the release of beryllium into the atmosphere from the burning of coal.
From 10 to 20 million pounds/yr of beryllium may be emitted from coal burning and refuse incineration globally. Beryllium concentrations in US coal ranges from 1.46 to 1.52 mg/kg.
In the United States, more than 80% of the beryllium emissions originate from coal-fired vessels. Approximately 721,000 persons living within 12.5 miles of point sources were thus possibly exposed in daily (1986) to small amounts of beryllium through inhalation.
In 1987, total daily intake values for beryllium in the general population were estimated by the EPA to be 1.6 microgram /day in air, 120 microgram in food, and 285 microgram in water. In addition, a smoker of one pack of cigarettes/day could inhale up to 700 microgram of beryllium, depending on the type of tobacco used.
However, considering ACTUAL beryllium concentrations in food and water, intake must be presumed to be much higher:
Beryllium Concentrations In Food:
0.08 mg/kg in polished rice 0.12 mg/kg in toasted bread, 0.17 mg/kg in potatoes, 0.24 mg/kg in tomatoes, and 0.33 mg/kg in head lettuce. 0.01 mg/kg in beans 0.05 mg/kg in cabbage 0.01 mg/kg in hen eggs (yolk) 0.02 mg/kg in milk 0.12 mg/kg in mushrooms 0.01 to 0.47 mg/kg in nuts
Considering that the Maximum Contaminat Level (MCL) for beryllium is set at 0.004mg/l, this is very disturbing. If the levels of beryllium exceed the MCL consistently, the system must notify the public via newspapers, radio, TV and other means.
Additional actions, such as providing alternative drinking water supplies, may be required to prevent serious risks to public health. Nobody is watching the food supply, or issuing similar warnings when levels exceed the known limits of potential toxicity!
Small amounts of Beryllium are also ingested by all people who consume "Colloid Minerals" on a daily basis.
Beryllium Is a Significant Workplace Health Hazard
Exposure to beryllium particles can cause a serious illness in certain people. This illness is chronic beryllium disease, or CBD-an irreversible and sometimes fatal scarring of the lungs.
Medical studies show that even small amounts of beryllium particles of a size that can be breathed deeply into the lungs may trigger an allergy-like sensitivity in 2-5 percent of people exposed.
About 1 to 3 percent of all people exposed to beryllium develop CBD. In studies of people in certain occupations where historically exposure to beryllium was greatest (for example, studies of machinists in beryllium operations), this number rises to as many as 10 to 14 percent.
There is currently no widely available test to find out who is sensitive to beryllium before exposure occurs.
More than 100 current and former employees of Department of Energy (DOE) sites have CBD. The percentage of people who were exposed and became ill is much larger than similar percentages known for other DOE workplace health hazards.
CBD is seen only in individuals who have experienced some exposure to beryllium particles, dust, or fumes. Chronic Beryllium Disease: A Long-Term Health Effect
Long-term, or chronic, health effects can take years to develop after the first exposure to beryllium and can affect people who were exposed to very small amounts of beryllium. In some cases, CBD has been diagnosed in former office workers and others who had only brief, incidental exposure to beryllium.
CBD is primarily a lung disease, but it may also affect other organs, particularly the lymph nodes, skin, spleen, liver, kidneys, and heart.
CBD is seen in individuals who are sensitized to beryllium.
CBD occurs in individuals who have become "allergic" or sensitized to beryllium upon exposure. Although current DOE medical surveillance programs are identifying more people who are only sensitized and not sick with CBD, many individuals already have CBD by the time they are evaluated for beryllium sensitization or lung symptoms.
CBD can take many years to develop.
The average time from first beryllium exposure to the development of symptoms (latency period) of CBD is 10 to 15 years. This means you can be exposed to beryllium today and not suffer any health effects for decades. Health effects have appeared in some people a few months after exposure, but not for as long as 30 years in others.
Doctors and researchers believe that some individuals who have had CBD lived with the disease and died from other causes without even knowing they had CBD.
CBD symptoms resemble those of other lung diseases.
The symptoms of CBD are very similar to those of several other diseases, particularly a disease called sarcoidosis that affects the lungs and sometimes other organs. Studies have found that in some cases doctors have diagnosed what turned out to be CBD as sarcoidosis or another disease.
Symptoms of CBD may include the following:
1. Persistent coughing 2. Shortness of breath with physical exertion 3. Fatigue 4. Chest and joint pain 5. Blood in the sputum (sputum is saliva, mucus, and other discharges that can be "coughed up" from the respiratory system) 6. Rapid heart rate 7. Loss of appetite 8. Fevers and night sweats
CBD is treatable, but not curable.
If loss of lung function is detected, treatment may involve taking corticosteroids (often just called "steroids"), a medicine that reduces inflammation. The most common type of corticosteroid prescribed for CBD is prednisone.
If successful, treatment with steroids can slow the progress of CBD by reducing the buildup of scar tissue and delaying permanent lung damage.
However, many individuals do not respond well to treatment. Others cannot tolerate the side effects of long-term steroid treatment.
Side effects of taking steroids for long periods of time can include slower healing of infections, calcium loss from the bones, higher blood cholesterol, and fluid and salt retention which can make heart or kidney disease worse. The right treatment for an individual must be considered in light of that person's overall health and medical history.
Individuals with insufficient levels of oxygen in their blood as a result of CBD may also need supplemental oxygen to help improve oxygen delivery to the body and to protect the heart from the damage that can be done by low oxygen levels.
Individuals who cannot take steroids may continue to lose lung function. As a result they are likely to experience poorer quality of life, becoming invalids in some cases. Their life span may also be shorter.
Although the use of corticosteroids is the standard treatment for CBD, research is in progress on other drugs that may reduce the need for high doses of corticosteroids.
On the other hand, some individuals with diagnosed CBD may never become sick enough to require treatment.
http://tis.eh.doe.gov/be/webdoc1.html-ss
I thought a short history of beryllium toxicity might be a useful follow-up for Public Citizen's efforts. The second arcticle above discusses using steroids to control this disease, but there are far more effective natural detoxification processes that are safer and more effective.
Clearly one needs to avoid exposure to beryllium though and it would be helpful for OSHA to change their exposure thresholds.