"Vaughn" wrote in news:ZZl3e.32697$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:
Not wrong I just should have elaborated a little more. Around 2%, give or take and depending on who to believe, of the population is succeptible to Chronic Beryllium Disease or CBD. CBD can be fatal over the long term, and even if it's not a fatal case it's a serious condition that you don't want. CBD is caused by inhaling Beryllium dust. So welding, melting, casting, abrasive cutting of any type ie grinding, buffing, polishing, sanding, light milling, etc are not advised without proper ventilation and filtering. I have read where people who show sensitivity to it when handling it (skin rash, dermititus, pneumonia type symptoms) may be more susceptible to CBD. I've mainly turned it under flood coolant on Swiss screw machines. At one company I worked at there were a couple of Levin Lathes that were used to turn it dry. I avoided that area like the plague. Beryllium is a known carcinogen. The woman that ran that Levin lathe for 30+ years got cancer. You could see the BeCu dust in the light from the work light sparkling in the air. Also makes me wonder if someone bought that lathe used over the years and took it home and cleaned all that dust out of it.
In the case of my wife, she was working with tiny
True.
With a name like Murphy? Never.
They were working with nearly pure Beryllium. Most got cancer.
I'm sorry to hear about you wife. All in all I'm more worried about the carcinogenic effects of it than the CBD though. Overall my exposure as far as I know has been fairly low. It seems a lot more people that work with Beryllium get cancer than CBD. Neither one is a picnic. Anyway, you wouldn't find me grinding or abrading the stuff. I doubt that I would ever bring a bar of BeCu home and machine it either. Grinding carbide is also fairly dangerous to your health. As I've gotten older Carbide dust will make my heart pound. Probably the Cobalt. The dust from carbide grinding is carcinogenic as well.