Ending decades of denial and inaction, the federal government on Friday issued a tough new exposure standard for one of the most unusual and deadly occupational risks U.S. workers have ever faced: the toxic metal beryllium.
Because of beryllium’s remarkable properties — it is lighter than aluminum but stiffer than steel — the metal is highly valued by the defense establishment and is an essential component of nuclear weapons. But when beryllium is ground, sanded or cut, the metal’s dust can cause an incurable, often fatal lung disease.
For many years, authorities largely ignored the problem, characterizing workers’ illnesses as the result of accidents or acute exposures even though some affected employees seemed to have only incidental contact with the metal. Among them: secretaries in beryllium processing plants.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the new standard — 10 times stronger than the old one established in the 1940s — will apply to 62,000 workers.
"We know there are many dozens of workers who get sick every year from chronic beryllium disease," outgoing OSHA head David Michaels said in an interview. "And that will change."
He said OSHA recognized decades ago the need for a stronger standard but faced resistance from defense officials.
"For many years, beryllium was strategically so important that the government and the beryllium industry fought hard against a more protective standard," Michaels said.
Beryllium disease slowly damages the lungs and leaves some victims unable to breathe without the aid of an oxygen tank.
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Dr. Lee Newman, a leading beryllium researcher, said the new rule will save lives and reduce suffering.
"Because it is not just about the people who die; it’s about the years that people live with the terrible suffering of not being able to breathe, having chronic coughs, having the terrible fatigue that comes with chronic beryllium disease," Newman said. "It’s a very slow, wasting lung disease."
James Heckbert, an attorney who represented numerous beryllium victims in several states, said he welcomed the new rule but wondered if any exposure was safe. "Is there truly a safe level that those who are sensitive to beryllium can withstand?"
Beryllium is used in a variety of industries, including defense, aerospace and electronics. OSHA said workers at risk include those employed in foundry and smelting operations and dental labs.
A Tribune investigation in 2001 found that many businesses across the country were not taking basic precautions, such as air monitoring, to protect workers. In 2002, the Tribune found that U.S. military personnel had been exposed to beryllium at dozens of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps facilities, with some levels exceeding safety limits.
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No one knows precisely how many workers have died of beryllium disease. Scientific papers, government reports and industry records indicate that more than 1,200 people have contracted the illness since the 1940s, with several hundred deaths. At the University of Chicago, several workers became sick after being exposed to beryllium at a World War II research lab.
The old exposure limit, established in 1949, was based largely on guesswork and dubbed "the taxicab standard" because a government health official and an industry medical consultant came up with the rule in the back of a taxi.
That standard called for workers to be exposed to no more than 2 micrograms of beryllium dust per cubic meter of air, an amount roughly equal to a marble-size piece of beryllium distributed evenly throughout a football stadium.
Officials knew workers might become ill at lower levels, a 1958 Atomic Energy Commission report stated, but "because of the relatively small numbers of people involved," it was seen as "an acceptable risk."
In the decades that followed, when America needed tons of beryllium for the Cold War, workers continued to contract the disease and die.
In 1975, OSHA proposed cutting the exposure limit in half, from 2 micrograms to 1. But the beryllium industry and U.S. defense officials undermined the plan, according to a Toledo Blade investigative series published in 1999.
Defense officials feared the safety plan would cut off beryllium supplies for weapons, which would "significantly and adversely affect our national defense," U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger wrote to two Cabinet members at the time, the Blade reported.
The new standard will be 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter, much stronger than what OSHA sought in the 1970s. Michaels said the Blade reports were instrumental in sparking OSHA to start work on the new rule as well as in prompting the Energy Department to take similar safety steps for workers at its facilities.
OSHA said the nation’s primary beryllium product manufacturer, Materion, and the United Steelworkers, which represents many people working with the metal, approached the agency in 2012 to suggest a stronger standard.
Michaels said he was surprised that the industry backed a tougher rule. "We were told it was the result of the negotiations between the union and the employer," Michaels said. Materion, based in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, declined to comment on the new safety limit. Materion’s beryllium unit is Materion Brush Inc., the successor to Brush Wellman Inc.
For Michaels, the new standard caps years of work. A former top Energy Department official, he also played a key role in that agency adopting beryllium exposure rules in 1999.
"I have met dozens of workers with chronic beryllium disease," he said. "When we held public meetings around the country, we had workers come forward to us who were strapped to oxygen tanks and whose lung function was destroyed by beryllium. I’m very gratified that, finally, we are able to address this."
President Barack Obama appointed Michaels to head OSHA in 2009. Michaels leaves office Wednesday.
sroe@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @samroe
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