Quick Page Navigation

Beryllium is a metal that can be harmful when you breathe it. The effects depend on how much and how long you are exposed to it. When you breathe it in, beryllium can damage your lungs. When you breathe in large amounts of soluble beryllium compounds, the lung damage resembles pneumonia with reddening and swelling of the lungs. This condition is called acute beryllium disease. In this case, if you stop breathing air with beryllium in it, the lung damage may heal. Some people can become sensitive to beryllium. This is known as hypersensitivity or allergy. If you become sensitive (allergic) to beryllium, you will develop an immune or inflammatory reaction to amounts of beryllium that do not cause effects in people who are not sensitive to beryllium. When this occurs, white cells accumulate around the beryllium and form a chronic inflammatory reaction called granulomas (granulomas are not tumors). This condition is called chronic beryllium disease. This disease can occur long after exposure to small amounts of either the soluble or the insoluble forms of beryllium. If you have this disease you may feel weak, tired, and have difficulty breathing.

Although the soluble and insoluble forms of beryllium can cause chronic beryllium disease, workers breathing air containing beryllium at less than 0.002 milligrams (mg) (1 mg = 1 thousandth of a gram of beryllium) in a cubic meter (mg/m³) (a level that government rules permit in the workplace) will probably not develop lung damage as a result of exposure. Both the short-term, pneumonia-like disease and the chronic beryllium disease can be fatal. Long periods of exposure to beryllium have been reported to cause cancer in laboratory animals, but some of these studies are not reliable. Some studies of workers reported an increased risk of lung cancer, but these studies are not conclusive, and new studies are being performed. The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that beryllium and certain beryllium compounds may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that beryllium and beryllium compounds are probably carcinogenic to humans. The EPA has determined that beryllium is a probable human carcinogen. We have no evidence that breathing air, eating food, or drinking water that contains beryllium or having skin contact with beryllium has any effects on reproduction or causes birth defects in humans or animals. Swallowing beryllium has not been reported to cause effects in humans because very little beryllium can move from the stomach and intestines into the bloodstream. Beryllium contact with skin that has been scraped or cut can cause rashes or ulcers. If you have developed an allergy to beryllium and have skin contact with it, you can get granulomas on the skin. These skin granulomas appear as a rash or as nodules. The skin granulomas are formed in the same way that lung granulomas are formed in sensitive people.

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1993. Toxicological profile for beryllium. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service