Introducing an occupational exposure limit (OEL) of 2 μg/m3 for beryllium would: 1) Require further investment from 6-12% of companies handling beryllium alloys to comply; 2) Cost €5-34 billion for compliance measures like improved ventilation; 3) Only prevent about 10 cases of lung cancer per year in the EU according to risk estimates. The high costs of compliance significantly outweighed the small health benefits, so there was no clear case for lowering the OEL for beryllium exposure.

1. INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE . Edinburgh . UK www.iom-world.org
Health and economic impacts
associated with introducing an
OEL for beryllium
John Cherrie
for the SHEcan Research Team

2. Summary…
• The SHEcan project
• Evaluation of 25 candidate substances for
changes to the Carcinogens & Mutagens
Directive
• Beryllium
• Estimated baseline health and socioeconomic
impacts
• The effect of setting an exposure limit
• The results for Be in the context of the
other substances evaluated
• Our recommendations to the EC
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3. SHEcan
• A project for the EC DG Employment to
undertake a Socioeconomic, Health and
Environmental impact assessment
• Basis for developing plans to update the
Carcinogens Directive
• Prime focus was the impact of introducing new
Occupational Exposure Limits
• Collaboration involved IOM, Imperial
College, AMEC, with assistance from other
scientists
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4. Methodology…
• Exposure levels reliant on stakeholder
data or when unavailable published
sources
• Risk assessment reliant on
epidemiological studies or analogy
• Health impact carried out using the
methodology developed for the British
cancer burden study
• Socioeconomic assessment based on
EC guidance
EPICOH SHEcan Mini-Symposium

5. Summary of results…
In Annex III
OELs Suggested by EC
Process generated
EPICOH SHEcan Mini-Symposium

6. Beryllium…
• We selected 2 μg/m3 as a typical
European OEL
• For risk estimates used Ward et al
(1992)
• High exposed groups used the smoking-
adjusted SMR for the entire cohort = 1.12
• Medium = 1.03, based excluding high-risk
plants
• Low (background) exposed groups risk = 1
• Exposure information provided by
industry
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10. Cardiff AWE personal sampling…
We assumed that exposure decreased 4% per year
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Johnson et al. (2001). Beryllium Exposure Control Program at the Cardiff Atomic Weapons
Establishment in the United Kingdom. Applied Occupational and Environmental Hyg; 16(5): 619-630.

11. Baseline health assessment…
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Baseline assessment
99% compliance
with OEL

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15. Introducing an OEL of 2 µg/m3
would…
• Require further investment for 6% and 12%
of companies involved in handling beryllium
or beryllium alloys.
• Assumed that only 10% can achieve compliance
using best practice measures
• Others will need improved local ventilation
• The total cost of implementing changes was
judged to be €5-34bn, calculated over the
period up to 2069
• Total benefits estimated as €11m - €30m
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18. Recommendations…
• Respirable crystalline silica
• Chrome VI
• Hardwood dust
• Diesel engine exhaust
• Rubber fume
• Benzo[a]pyrene
• Trichloroethylene
• Hydrazine
• Epichlorohydrin
• O-Toluidine
• Mineral oils as used engine oil
• MDA
Strong case
A case
A limited case
Uncertainty

19. Conclusions…
• Little evidence for any important health
impact from current and relatively recent past
exposure to beryllium
• Less than about 10 cases of lung cancer per
year across the whole EU
• Very high cost of complying with a limit of
0.002 mg/m3
• No case for further intervention for beryllium
Our summary report is available at…
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=716&langId=en
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