Occupational exposure to beryllium in French industries

Beryllium (Be) is a metal mainly used in the form of alloys, with copper (Cu) and aluminium (Al) in the metal industry. Be is an extremely toxic element which must be handled under strictly controlled conditions to avoid health hazards to workers. Exposure to Be can be responsible for Chronic Beryllium Disease, a pulmonary disease preceded by sensitization to the element, and for lung cancer. The goals of the current study were to investigate Be exposure in France, to determine the airborne Be occupational exposure levels, the associated impregnation of employees through their urinary Be levels and the factors that might affect them, and finally to study a possible relation between biomonitoring and airborne data. Seventy-five volunteer subjects were thus atmospherically and biologically monitored in five French companies involved in Cu or Al casting, Al smelting, CuBe machining or AlBe general mechanical engineering. Airborne exposure was quite low with only 2% of measurements above the current French Occupational Exposure Limit (2 µg/m³); the population potentially most exposed was foundry workers. Impregnation with Be was also low with only 10% of quantified urinary Be measurements above the current German BAR value (0.05 µg/L). Using a Bayesian statistical modelling approach, the mean subject-specific urinary excretion of Be was found to increase significantly with the mean subject-specific exposure to airborne Be. From this relationship, and based on the current French OEL-8 hr, a Biological Limit Value of 0.08 µg/L (= 0.06 µg/g creatinine) could be proposed.