Hi Kelsey,
Several years ago I was an expert witness on a beryllium case where exposures led to diseases (one had berylliosis and the other had chronic beryllium disease). I received a box full of many depositions and other materials to review.
Doctors, toxicologists, and other beryllium professionals all testified. The literature and cases are fascinating in how little beryllium it takes. Beryllium is a sensitizer and there is a genetic component to this sensitivity.
In another instance, a colleague and I disassembled, tested, decontaminated, and retested vacuum chambers previously used for beryllium research. They'd been "gifted" to a student org which once we were made aware, we sequestered it, wrapped it in plastic, assessed it, and remediated it.
Based on it all I'd advise people to consider work with beryllium to be a serious challenge. It's a candidate for elimination in the hierarchy of hazard controls. My advice is that no exposures are warranted and it is quite difficult to control it down to the level needed to reduce risk enough to prevent disease. Even the experts in this area have failed to prevent disease.
I'm struggling to understand the use of positive pressure with beryllium present which presents significant risks of exposure (as said: "samples that could generate particles/dust"). If the glove box(es) have suspect leaks, I'd recommend removing the beryllium and thoroughly decontaminating all surfaces, materials, etc. before putting it under positive pressure.
If I have missed, misconstrued, or misunderstood anything you've said, please help me with greater details, context, etc.
Feel free to
contact me off the list - I'm happy to chat and to try to help.
All my best,
Jon
Jonathan Klane, M.S.Ed., CIH, CSP, CHMM, CIT
Senior Safety Editor, Lab Manager Magazine
PhD candidate, Human + Social Dimensions of Science + Technology
College of Global Futures
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Hello,
Hoping to connect with anyone who has academic or non-industry groups working with beryllium salts. Including a description as well as some specific questions below.
UC Berkeley has a group working with FLiBe. We have an exposure plan and standard operating procedures, this includes working in a glove box train with the boxes set up for negative pressure. A request has been made to use the boxes in positive pressure while they look into a potential leak as well as carry out some level of experiments. We have some concerns with the request and are curious how others operate their boxes.
- When using a glove box to handle beryllium (samples that could generate particles/dust), is there a standard pressure set up such as positive or negative?
- If the box is set up with positive pressure, are there additional controls (particularly engineering) that are established to protect workers from exposure? Any specifics are much appreciated.
- If not using glove boxes, any examples of ventilated enclosures that operate in positive pressure would also be welcome with a description of the controls.
We are hoping to collect some different examples of set ups to compare and better provide recommendations to the group for managing this hazard safely.
Appreciate your help!
Kelsey
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