Cohort mortality study of workers at seven beryllium processing plants: update and associations with cumulative and maximum exposure

Abstract

These findings reaffirm that lung cancer and CBD, and suggest that COPD and nervous system and urinary tract cancers, are related to beryllium exposure. Cigarette smoking and exposure to other lung carcinogens are unlikely to explain these elevations.

Adjustment for temporal confounders in a reanalysis of a case–control study of beryllium and lung cancer

“…Contrary to a recent critique of the original study by Levy et al ,14 the choice of a small value to add to each exposure to avoid taking the logarithm of zero did not reduce the magnitude of this association. To address the demographic limitations inherent in the Reading cohort discussed above, an updated cohort mortality study, which includes an additional 13 years of follow-up and two additional beryllium processing facilities (both of which started in the late 1950s) with available job-exposure matrices, is currently being conducted by NIOSH15 and should be available soon. The updated study will include more lung cancers and thus will improve study power.…”

Risk estimate of ischaemic heart disease in workers exposed to beryllium

“…Mary Schubauer-Berigan and coworkers1 presented quantitative beryllium exposure measurements and an increased risk of cor pulmonale (standardised mortality ratio (SMR) 1.17; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.26) in a well-conducted cohort study. However, no risk estimate of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) was reported.…”

Sensitization and chronic beryllium disease at a primary manufacturing facility, part 2: validation of historical exposures

“…In these studies, exposure measurements were collected using different approaches including shortduration breathing zone samples, general area air samples, daily-weighted average measurements (a combination of the breathing zone and general area samples with activity-time data), 37 mm closed-face cassettes "total" samples, size-fractionated impactor samples, and fixed air-head area samples. The daily-weighted average has also been used in other studies of beryllium exposures or for evaluating health outcomes such as cancer or changes in pulmonary function (11)(12)(13)(14). In all these studies, estimates of past exposures have been based on historical daily-weighted average, area air sampling data, or on the assumption that past exposures are not different from current exposures.…”