Beryllium Disease

Abstract

Exposure to beryllium and to some of its compounds is known to be associated with two sorts of disease: an acute form involving the respiratory tract in an inflammatory reaction which seems capable of complete resolution, and a chronic form, appearing at a variable and often long interval after exposure, characterized by systemic as well as lung changes having a histological structure resembling that of sarcoidosis, and generally leading to irreversible fibrotic changes in the lungs. Since these diseases have been well described in a number of publications (Vorwald et al., 1950; Archives of Industrial Health, February 1959; Tepper et al., 1961; Stoeckle et al., 1969; Freiman and Hardy, 1970) only a brief summary of the established facts about them will be given here, as an introduction to a discussion of the resemblances and differences between chronic beryllium disease and ‘idiopathic’ sarcoidosis.