Historical perspectives on the uses and health risks of beryllium

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1985 · Fusion Technol.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5792917

Preuss, O P

Unawareness of the health risks of beryllium resulted in a decade of unmitigated exposure of several thousand workers and numerous cases of beryllium disease in employees and nearby residents. Subsequent adoption of exposure limits and their implementation with effective technical controls reduced the occurrence of new cases, which were mainly due to accidental exposures, to a minimum. The fact that continuously growing production and consumption did not alter this trend demonstrates the effectiveness of the present threshold limit value. It shows that the potential health hazard can be well contained and that beryllium can be produced and fabricated without undue risk to employees or the general public.

• Research Organization: Brush Wellman Inc., Cleveland, OH
• OSTI ID: 5792917
• Report Number(s): CONF-850310-
• Journal Information: Fusion Technol.; (United States), Vol. 8:1; Conference: 6. topical meeting on the technology of fusion energy, San Francisco, CA, USA, 3 Mar 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BERYLLIUM
HEALTH HAZARDS
RADIATION HAZARDS
RISK ASSESSMENT
DISEASES
FABRICATION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
HUMAN POPULATIONS
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PUBLIC HEALTH
RADIATION DOSES
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR MATERIALS
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
DOSES
ELEMENTS
HAZARDS
MATERIALS
METALS
POPULATIONS
SAFETY
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