Berylliosis, or chronic beryllium disease (CBD), is a chronic allergic-type lung response and chronic lung disease

Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

 caused by exposure to beryllium

Beryllium

Beryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a divalent element which occurs naturally only in combination with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include beryl and chrysoberyl...

 and its compounds. As an occupational lung disease

Occupational lung disease

Main Article Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Occupational lung diseases are a branch of occupational diseases concerned primarily with work related exposures to harmful substances, be they dusts or gases, and the subsequent pulmonary disorders that may occur as a result...

, it is most classically associated with beryllium mining or manufacturing of fluorescent light bulbs (which used to contain beryllium compounds in their internal phosphor coating).

The condition is incurable, but symptoms can be treated.

Symptoms

With single or prolonged exposure by inhalation, the lungs become hypersensitive to beryllium causing the development of small inflammatory nodules, called granulomas.

Granulomas are seen in other chronic diseases, such as tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis , also called sarcoid, Besnier-Boeck disease or Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease, is a disease in which abnormal collections of chronic inflammatory cells form as nodules in multiple organs. The cause of sarcoidosis is unknown...

, and it can occasionally be hard to distinguish berylliosis from these disorders.

Ultimately, this process leads to restrictive lung disease, a decreased diffusion capacity

Diffusion capacity

In biology, diffusion capacity is a measurement of the lung's ability to transfer gases. Oxygen uptake may be limited by diffusion in circumstances of low ambient oxygen or high pulmonary blood flow...

.

Clinically patients experience cough

Cough

A cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes...

 and shortness of breath. Other symptoms include chest pain

Chest pain

Chest pain may be a symptom of a number of serious conditions and is generally considered a medical emergency. Even though it may be determined that the pain is non-cardiac in origin, this is often a diagnosis of exclusion made after ruling out more serious causes of the pain.-Differential...

, joint aches, weight loss

Weight loss

Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health or physical fitness, is a reduction of the total body mass, due to a mean loss of fluid, body fat or adipose tissue and/or lean mass, namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon and other connective tissue...

 and fever

Fever

Fever is a common medical sign characterized by an elevation of temperature above the normal range of due to an increase in the body temperature regulatory set-point. This increase in set-point triggers increased muscle tone and shivering.As a person's temperature increases, there is, in...

.

Rarely, one can get granulomas in other organs including the liver

Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

.

The onset of symptoms can range from weeks up to tens of years from the initial exposure. In some individuals a single exposure can cause berylliosis.

History as occupational disease

Cases of bronchitis and pneumonia-like symptoms were reported in Germany and Russia in the 1930's, among workers mining and refining beryllium. By 1946, a cluster of cases associated with fluorescent lamp manufacturers were apparent in the United States, and the lamp industry stopped using beryllium in 1949. The level of reaction of individuals varies greatly, with some not developing symptoms until years after exposure within industrial plants, but other workers only exposed to traces of dust became affected as well. A study found 1% of people living within 3/4 of a mile of a beryllium plant in Lorain, Ohio, had berylliosis after exposure to concentrations estimated to be less than 1 milligram per cubic metre of air. In the United States the Beryllium Case Registry contained 900 records, early cases relating to extraction and fluorescent lamp manufacture, later ones coming from the ceramics and metallurgical industries.

External links

• ATSDR Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Beryllium Toxicity U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Beryllium Network
• Health-cares.net
• Instant insight from the Royal Society of Chemistry
  Royal Society of Chemistry
  The Royal Society of Chemistry is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences." It was formed in 1980 from the merger of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new...
  
  examining the molecular basis of chronic beryllium disease
• http://books.google.com/books?id=I-7VfHOQ-Q0C&pg=PA103&dq=beryllium+fluorescent+lamp&hl=en&ei=q8KJTqH3Ao6D-wbxsqT4Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=beryllium%20fluorescent%20lamp&f=falseChapter Seven Salem Sarcoid:The Origins of Beryllium Disease", in David Rosner, Gerald E. Markowitz (ed) Dying for work: workers' safety and health in twentieth-century America, Indiana University Press, 1987 ISBN 0253318254 ]