Background: The nuclear weapons industry has long been known as a source of beryllium exposure.
Methods: A total of 1,004 former workers from a nuclear weapons assembly site in the Midwest were screened for sensitization to beryllium (BeS). The screenings were part of the Department of Energy (DOE) Former Worker Program established in 1996.
Results: Twenty-three (2.3%) workers were found sensitized to beryllium and this prevalence was comparable to other DOE sites. Occasional, direct exposure to beryllium through machining and grinding of copper-beryllium (Cu-Be) 2% alloy tools was found to increase the risk of sensitization compared to background exposure (OR = 3.83; 95% CI: 1.04-14.03) with a statistically significant trend (P = 0.03) revealing that particular jobs are associated with sensitization. Exposure potential in this study was estimated based on job titles and not personal exposure information.
Conclusions: These results confirm the need to screen workers using beryllium alloy tools in other industries and for consideration of altering work practices.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20913 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Radioactive contamination of southeast Abai oblast, Kazakhstan, from the Chinese nuclear weapons testing program at Lop Nor: an analytical review.
J Radiat Res
January 2025
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch, Av. Tony Garnier, Lyon 69007, France.
Between 1949 and 1962 the Soviet Union performed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (SNTS) in Kazakhstan, resulting in widespread contamination of the surrounding region with radioactive fallout. Settlements in the southeast Abai oblast of Kazakhstan, close to the border with China, are not thought to have received significant fallout from the SNTS. There is, however, evidence that the study area, including Makanchi, Urdzhar and Taskesken villages, was contaminated by atmospheric nuclear tests performed by China at the Lop Nor NTS between 1964 and 1980.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlutonium Marker for the Great Acceleration by Intensified Human Activities.
Environ Sci Technol
January 2025
Xi'an AMS Center, State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Technology and Application, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, P. R. China.
There has been a sharp rise in the extent and scale of human activities since the mid-20th century, termed the "Great Acceleration", and nuclear activities are one of the defining technological processes for this period. Pu released by atmospheric nuclear weapons tests provides an ideal chronostratigraphic marker for labeling this change due to its global fallout feature, temporal mutation, and long half-lives. However, the accumulation dynamics of plutonium from atmospheric deposition to preservation in the sediment is still controversial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFindings and Recommendations From a Series of Workshops on Hospital Emergency Responses to an Improvised Nuclear Device Detonation.
Health Secur
December 2024
Jenna Mandel-Ricci, MPA, MPH, is Chief of Staff; both at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Greater New York Hospital Association held 3 workshops and 2 follow-up meetings with hospital emergency managers and colleagues to determine hospitals' response actions to a scenario of a 10-kiloton improvised nuclear device detonation. The scenario incorporated 3 zones of damage (moderate, light, and beyond damage zones) and covered the period of 0 to 72 hours postdetonation divided into 3 24-hour operational periods. The Joint Commission's critical emergency areas were used to determine the objectives and response actions that would be initiated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBaseline tritium measurements in Thailand's water bodies: Supporting sustainable nuclear energy development.
J Environ Radioact
December 2024
Graduate School of Human Environment, Osaka Sangyo University, Osaka, 5748530, Japan.
Tritium, a radioactive isotope produced naturally through cosmic radiation interactions and anthropogenically through nuclear weapons testing, poses potential environmental risks, particularly within the water cycle. This study measured tritium concentrations in surface water across Thailand to establish a baseline dataset for monitoring potential contamination from nuclear activities and accidents. Surface water samples were collected from 14 large reservoirs during the wet season in October 2023 and the dry season in February 2024, providing a total of 28 samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyelodysplastic syndromes among atomic bomb survivors in Nagasaki: similarities to and differences from de novo and therapy-related cases.
J Radiat Res
December 2024
Department of Hematology, Atomic Bomb Disease and Hibakusha Medicine Unit, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan.
Epidemiological studies for atomic bomb (A-bomb) survivors clearly demonstrated that A-bomb radiation increased the risk of hematological neoplasms, such as acute and chronic leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) among survivors. Several studies on MDS among survivors investigated its characteristics, and it seems that MDS among survivors has different features from those seen in de novo MDS and therapy-related MDS. In this short review, we describe the differences of clinical features, chromosomal alterations and genome aberrations among them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!