Handling beryllium in solid form poses no special health risk. Like many industrial materials, beryllium-containing materials may pose a health risk if recommended safe handling practices are not followed. Inhalation of airborne beryllium may cause a serious lung disorder in susceptible individuals. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the United States has set mandatory limits on occupational respiratory exposures. Read and follow the guidance in the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) before working with this material. For additional information on safe handling practices or technical data on beryllium, contact Brush Wellman Inc. - Electrofusion Products.
The health and safety of our customers, vendors, employees, and environment are very important to us. Click
here for a PDF copy of our health and safety policy.
To jump directly to a section of Health and Safety Information, use the links below:
Brush Wellman has written and produced a video training DVD called "
The Interactive Guide to Working Safely with Beryllium and Beryllium-Containing Materials" designed to help both employees and employers work more safely with beryllium. To order a copy for free, click
here.
If you will be machining, grinding, etching, or somehow processing beryllium in a way that produces particulate and you would like personal assistance in setting up to work safely with beryllium, you may want to contact an independent consultant for help. Brush Wellman maintains a
list of professional Industrial Hygienists who have either attended an industrial hygiene training seminar on beryllium or have previous experience in controlling occupational exposure to beryllium. These consultants provide services independent of Brush Wellman. Brush Wellman assists members of the network by providing them periodic updates through refresher courses and written correspondence. If you have any questions regarding the Beryllium Consultant Network, please contact Brush Wellman Inc. at 1-800-862-4118.
We receive many questions asking about beryllium and
RoHS regulations. RoHS currently restricts product that contains over a specified amount of Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Hexavalent chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls, or Polybrominated diphenyl ether. Beryllium is
not regulated under RoHS. In fact, x-ray tubes and x-ray detectors using beryllium x-ray windows are most commonly used to verify that other products meet RoHS requirements. For a certificate from Brush Wellman indicating the compliance of our products, click
here.
Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals or
REACH is legislation (
(EC) No 1907/2006)), approved by the European Union (EU) that is designed to provide safety, health, environmental and use information about chemical substances to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). REACH requires producers and importers to register chemical substances produced in or imported to the EU market in excess of 1 metric ton per year through a phased approach. After registration, chemicals may be evaluated, subjected to authorization or restricted by the agency in concert with member states. The ultimate goal of the REACH legislation is to ensure that useful safety information gets to the end users. To find out if this will affect you and your use of beryllium, click
here.
If you need an MSDS for beryllium or beryllium containing alloys, you can get them here:
If you need an MSDS for other beryllium containing products that Brush Wellman-Electrofusion Products does not work with, you can find them under the "Environmental Health and Safety" tab on the left side of the Brush Wellman website. Some of the more common ones are:
As useful guides, Brush Wellman has developed the following documents related to working safely with beryllium.
We have also compiled our most recent statement of current knowledge and have previous versions of this document.
Many more documents are available under the "Environmental Health and Safety" tab on the left side of the Brush Wellman website.
Beryllium can be recycled. For more information, look at our Frequently Asked Questions page here, under the "General Questions" section.
