Beryllium Contamination Inside Vehicles of Machine Shop Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ellis K ; Henneberger, Paul K. ; Martyny J ; Mroz MM ; Newman, Lee S. ; Sanderson, Wayne T.
• Description:
  Inhalation of beryllium particles causes a chronic, debilitating lung disease--chronic beryllium disease (CBD)--in immunologically sensitized workers. Evidence that very low concentrations of beryllium may initiate this chronic disease is provided by incidences of the illness in family members exposed to beryllium dust from workers' clothes and residents in neighborhoods surrounding beryllium refineries. This article describes the results of a cross-sectional survey to evaluate potential take-home beryllium exposures by measuring surface concentrations on the hands and in vehicles of workers at a precision machine shop where cases of CBD had recently been diagnosed. Many workers did not change out of their work clothes and shoes at the end of their shift, increasing the risk of taking beryllium home to their families. Wipe samples collected from workers' hands and vehicle surfaces were analyzed for beryllium content by inductively coupled argon plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The results ranged widely, from nondetectable to 40 micrograms/ft2 on workers' hands and up to 714 micrograms/ft2 inside their vehicles, demonstrating that many workers carried residual beryllium on their hands and contaminated the inside of their vehicles when leaving work. The highest beryllium concentrations inside the workers' vehicles were found on the drivers' floor (GM = 19 micrograms/ft2, GSD = 4.9), indicating that workers were carrying beryllium on their shoes into their vehicles. A safe level of beryllium contamination on surfaces is not known, but it is prudent to reduce the potential for workers to carry beryllium away from the work site. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Beryllium Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Beryllium Beryllium-compounds Beryllium-disease Beryllium-poisoning Machine-shop-workers Machinists Respiratory-system-disorders Statistical-analysis Surface Beryllium Contamination Take-Home Exposure
• ISSN:
  1047-322X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 8 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies ; DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  223-230
• Volume:
  14
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20000895
• Citation:
  Appl Occup Environ Hyg 1999 Apr; 14(4):223-230
• Contact Point Address:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DSHEFS, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226
• CAS Registry Number:
  Beryllium (CAS RN 7440-41-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Performing Organization:
  National Jewish Medical Research Center, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Denver, Colorado
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  19950930
• Source Full Name:
  Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20000929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:454d517e2319d8a3c25565c24123aaa81d0e9ece0099576bfef32d227c2261cb37a76bf084d60eb2c350a954f4adbdd7f57f2ff6f06a40423ce33ee5cf5062bb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/198241/cdc_198241_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 358.07 KB ]