Using a dialectic method of philosophic inquiry, the actual ethical, legal, and social situation associated with genetic testing of beryllium-exposed workers in Department of Energy nuclear weapons facilities for markers of chronic beryllium disease is described. The cultural evolution of a caste system in a similar situation, and its social and biological implications, among uranium miners in ...

compared with those ofboth the general population and a cohort of viscose-rayon workers. Ratios of observed to expected deaths for lung cancer in the two industrial populations (65 observed) were found to be elevated in both comparisons (1.4 in respect of both the general population (95% confidence interval (CI), 1. 1 1.8) and the viscose-rayon workers (1.0-2.0)) and tended to be concentrated i...

BACKGROUND The relevance of beryllium sensitization testing for occupational health practice and prevention is unclear. AIMS To analyse the natural course of beryllium sensitization and clarify the prognosis following cessation of exposure among sensitized workers. METHODS An electronic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Toxline and Cochrane databases supplemented by a manua...

BACKGROUND To determine whether current and former construction workers are at significant risk for occupational illnesses from work at the Department of Energy's (DOE) nuclear weapons facilities, screening programs were undertaken at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Oak Ridge Reservation, and the Savannah River Site. METHODS Medical examination for beryllium disease used a medical history an...

We aimed at investigating mortality among beryllium-exposed workers, according to solubility of beryllium and beryllium compounds. We conducted an historical cohort study of 16,115 workers employed during 1925-2008 in 15 facilities, including eight entailing exposure to insoluble beryllium and seven entailing exposure to soluble/mixed beryllium compounds, who were followed up for mortality unti...

In 1933 Weber and Engelhardt reported the first case of acute pneumonitis due to beryllium poisoning. Other instances of the acute reaction to beryllium salts were described by Van Ordstrand, Hughes, DeNardi, and Carmody (1945). Hardy and Tabershaw (1946) gave details of the chronic or delayed form of the disease, and DeNardi, Van Ordstrand, Curtis, and Zielinski (1953) published a review of 46...

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells from patients with chronic beryllium disease (CBD) have been used to evaluate the beryllium-specific immune response and potential immunotherapeutics. Beryllium induces interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), interleukin-2 (IL-2), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) from BAL cells. An antibody to IL-2 and recombinant...

Despite more than 20 years of surveillance and epidemiologic studies using the beryllium blood lymphocyte proliferation test (BeBLPT) as a measure of beryllium sensitization (BeS) and as an aid for diagnosing subclinical chronic beryllium disease (CBD), improvements in specific understanding of the inhalation toxicology of CBD have been limited. Although epidemiologic data suggest that BeS and ...