TY - JOUR
T1 - Summary of historical beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels at Los Alamos National Laboratory
AU - Stefaniak, Aleksandr B.
AU - Weaver, Virginia M.
AU - Cadorette, Maureen
AU - Puckett, Leslie G.
AU - Schwartz, Brian S.
AU - Wiggs, Laurie D.
AU - Jankowski, Mark D.
AU - Breysse, Patrick N.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge B. Hargis and B. Gallimore of the LANL Industrial Hygiene and Safety Group, and D. Erickson of the former ESH Division for their support of this project. We also thank the LANL Toxicology and Information Services Team (H. White, J. Conwell, J. Encinias, and B. Hargraves) for assistance with queries of the IHS and WF databases, B. Rooney of Johns Hopkins University for analysis of the data, and H. Ettinger of LANL for helpful discussions throughout this project. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement with the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health DE-FC03-98SF21541 Development of a Medical Screening Program for Former LANL Workers.
PY - 2003/9/1
Y1 - 2003/9/1
N2 - Beryllium operations and accompanying medical surveillance of workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory began in the 1940s. In 1999 a Former Workers Medical Surveillance Program that includes screening for chronic beryllium disease was initiated. As part of this program, historical beryllium exposure conditions were reconstructed from archived paper and electronic industrial hygiene data sources to improve understanding of past beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels. Archived industrial hygiene sampling reports indicated beryllium was principally used in technical areas-01 and -03, primarily being machined. Beryllium was also used at 15 other technical areas in activities that ranged from explosives detonation to the manufacture of X-ray windows. A total of 4528 personal breathing zone and area air samples for beryllium, combined for purposes of calculating summary statistics, were identified during the records review phase. The geometric mean airborne beryllium concentration for the period 1949-1989 for all technical areas was 0.04 μg Be/m3 with 97 percent of all sample below the 2.0 μg Be/m3 occupational exposure limit (OEL). Average beryllium concentrations per decade were less than 1 μg Be/m3 and annual geometric mean concentrations in technical area-03, the largest user of beryllium, were generally below 0.1 μg Be/m3, indicating exposure was generally well-controlled, that is, below the OEL. Typical of many retrospective exposure assessments, not all archived data could be extracted and summarized. Despite this, we report a reasonable summary of potential beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels a worker may have encountered from 1949-1989. These data can be used to more effectively identify former worker populations at potential risk for chronic beryllium disease and to offer these workers screening as part of the Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program, and in the event that a case is diagnosed, help to understand historical exposure conditions.
AB - Beryllium operations and accompanying medical surveillance of workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory began in the 1940s. In 1999 a Former Workers Medical Surveillance Program that includes screening for chronic beryllium disease was initiated. As part of this program, historical beryllium exposure conditions were reconstructed from archived paper and electronic industrial hygiene data sources to improve understanding of past beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels. Archived industrial hygiene sampling reports indicated beryllium was principally used in technical areas-01 and -03, primarily being machined. Beryllium was also used at 15 other technical areas in activities that ranged from explosives detonation to the manufacture of X-ray windows. A total of 4528 personal breathing zone and area air samples for beryllium, combined for purposes of calculating summary statistics, were identified during the records review phase. The geometric mean airborne beryllium concentration for the period 1949-1989 for all technical areas was 0.04 μg Be/m3 with 97 percent of all sample below the 2.0 μg Be/m3 occupational exposure limit (OEL). Average beryllium concentrations per decade were less than 1 μg Be/m3 and annual geometric mean concentrations in technical area-03, the largest user of beryllium, were generally below 0.1 μg Be/m3, indicating exposure was generally well-controlled, that is, below the OEL. Typical of many retrospective exposure assessments, not all archived data could be extracted and summarized. Despite this, we report a reasonable summary of potential beryllium uses and airborne concentration levels a worker may have encountered from 1949-1989. These data can be used to more effectively identify former worker populations at potential risk for chronic beryllium disease and to offer these workers screening as part of the Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program, and in the event that a case is diagnosed, help to understand historical exposure conditions.
KW - Chronic Beryllium Disease
KW - Historical Exposure
KW - Machining
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U2 - 10.1080/10473220301381
DO - 10.1080/10473220301381
M3 - Article
C2 - 12909539
AN - SCOPUS:0042693089
SN - 1047-322X
VL - 18
SP - 708
EP - 715
JO - Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
JF - Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
IS - 9
ER -