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Plant Physiology and Biochemistry : PPB Jun 2019Industrialization and inevitable mining has resulted in the release of some metals in environments, which have numerous industrial roles on one hand and also showed... (Review)
Review
Industrialization and inevitable mining has resulted in the release of some metals in environments, which have numerous industrial roles on one hand and also showed environmental toxicity on other hand. Beryllium is one of them, it has been used in number of industries however its excess use or inappropriate disposal of beryllium resulted in high beryllium accumulation in soil and ground water. This subsequently is affecting our environment and more potentially arable crop production. Beryllium has been extensively studied in humans and reported as toxic metal. In plants, only few studies have been documented toxic effects of beryllium in plants. Moreover, plant products (fruits, grains or other plant parts) could be major source of beryllium toxicity in our food chain therefore it is more imperative to understand how plant can be developed more tolerant to beryllium toxicity. In this short mini-review article, we primarily highlighted and speculated different beryllium uptake, translocation and beryllium storage mechanism in plants. This article provides considerable information for people who are working in identifying and developing heavy metal hyper accumulators plants.
Topics: Beryllium; Biodegradation, Environmental; Environmental Pollution; Plants
PubMed: 31054471
DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.04.022 -
Journal of Environmental Science and... Feb 2003Beryllium is an important industrial metal because of its unusual material properties: it is lighter than aluminum and six times stronger than steel. Often alloyed with... (Review)
Review
Beryllium is an important industrial metal because of its unusual material properties: it is lighter than aluminum and six times stronger than steel. Often alloyed with other metals such as copper, beryllium is a key component of materials used in the aerospace and electronics industries. Beryllium has a small neutron cross-section, which makes it useful in the production of nuclear weapons and in sealed neutron sources. Unfortunately, beryllium is one of the most toxic elements in the periodic table. It is responsible for the often-fatal lung disease, Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD) or berylliosis, and is listed as a Class A EPA carcinogen. Coal-fired power plants, industrial manufacturing and nuclear weapons production and disposal operations have released beryllium to the environment. This contamination has the potential to expose workers and the public to beryllium. Despite the increasing use of beryllium in industry, there is surprisingly little published information about beryllium fate and transport in the environment. This information is crucial for the development of strategies that limit worker and public exposure. This review summarizes the current understanding of beryllium health hazards, current regulatory mandates, environmental chemistry, geochemistry and environmental contamination.
Topics: Beryllium; Carcinogens; Environment; Environmental Exposure; Environmental Monitoring; Humans; Ion Exchange; Occupational Exposure; Public Health; Risk Assessment
PubMed: 12638707
DOI: 10.1081/ese-120016906 -
Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine Mar 2015Metals can cause disease of the upper and lower respiratory tract that mirror disease due to other causes, such as asthma, rhinosinusitis, acute bronchitis, chronic... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Metals can cause disease of the upper and lower respiratory tract that mirror disease due to other causes, such as asthma, rhinosinusitis, acute bronchitis, chronic bronchitis, acute pneumonitis, bronchogenic carcinoma, and interstitial lung disease. This article will describe some uncommon and unique lung diseases that can be induced by metals.
RECENT FINDINGS
Our understanding of old occupational lung diseases, such as chronic beryllium disease, continues to increase. New exposures in the workplace, such as indium, have been identified as novel occupational hazards. New forms of exposure, such as titanium dioxide nanoparticles, create risk of lung disease that is not seen with larger particles.
SUMMARY
Knowledge of several unusual and/or unique occupational lung diseases should prompt questioning about a patient's occupational history, which may uncover an occupational, rather than an idiopathic, lung disease.
Topics: Animals; Berylliosis; Beryllium; Humans; Lung Diseases; Occupational Diseases; Occupational Exposure
PubMed: 25602804
DOI: 10.1097/MCP.0000000000000140 -
Clinical Toxicology 1977
Review
Topics: Air; Animals; Berylliosis; Beryllium; Carcinogens; Chronic Disease; Environmental Pollutants; Guinea Pigs; Humans; Lung; Occupational Diseases; Rats; Skin; Space Flight
PubMed: 322934
DOI: 10.3109/15563657708987958 -
The Annals of Occupational Hygiene Jan 2011Beryllium metal was classified in Europe collectively with beryllium compounds, e.g. soluble salts. Toxicological equivalence was assumed despite greatly differing... (Review)
Review
Beryllium metal was classified in Europe collectively with beryllium compounds, e.g. soluble salts. Toxicological equivalence was assumed despite greatly differing physicochemical properties. Following introduction of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, beryllium metal was classified as individual substance and more investigational efforts to appropriately characterize beryllium metal as a specific substance apart from soluble beryllium compounds was required. A literature search on toxicity of beryllium metal was conducted, and the resulting literature compiled together with the results of a recently performed study package into a comprehensive data set. Testing performed under Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development guidelines and Good Laboratory Practice concluded that beryllium metal was neither a skin irritant, an eye irritant, a skin sensitizer nor evoked any clinical signs of acute oral toxicity; discrepancies between the current legal classification of beryllium metal in the European Union (EU) and the experimental results were identified. Furthermore, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity were discussed in the context of the literature data and the new experimental data. It was concluded that beryllium metal is unlikely to be a classical nonthreshold mutagen. Effects on DNA repair and morphological cell transformation were observed but need further investigation to evaluate their relevance in vivo. Animal carcinogenicity studies deliver evidence of carcinogenicity in the rat; however, lung overload may be a species-specific confounding factor in the existing studies, and studies in other species do not give convincing evidence of carcinogenicity. Epidemiology has been intensively discussed over the last years and has the problem that the studies base on the same US beryllium production population and do not distinguish between metal and soluble compounds. It is noted that the correlation between beryllium exposure and carcinogenicity, even including the soluble compounds, remains under discussion in the scientific community and active research is continuing.
Topics: Animals; Beryllium; Carcinogens; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Environmental Exposure; European Union; Humans; Occupational Exposure; Rats
PubMed: 21196456
DOI: 10.1093/annhyg/meq073 -
Journal of Occupational and... Mar 1997
Topics: Animals; Beryllium; Bone Neoplasms; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Osteosarcoma
PubMed: 9093970
DOI: 10.1097/00043764-199703000-00008 -
Journal of Occupational and... Oct 2005
Topics: Berylliosis; Beryllium; Humans; Immunization; Occupational Diseases; Occupational Exposure; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Assessment; Terminology as Topic
PubMed: 16174633
DOI: 10.1080/15459620500297576 -
The American Journal of Pathology May 1948
Topics: Beryllium; Humans; Pneumoconiosis
PubMed: 18938517
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of the American Medical... Dec 1945
Topics: Berylliosis; Beryllium; Humans
PubMed: 21004768
DOI: 10.1001/jama.1945.02860500016005 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2010Beryllium is a lightweight metal with unique qualities related to stiffness, corrosion resistance, and conductivity. While there are many useful applications,... (Review)
Review
Beryllium is a lightweight metal with unique qualities related to stiffness, corrosion resistance, and conductivity. While there are many useful applications, researchers in the 1930s and 1940s linked beryllium exposure to a progressive occupational lung disease. Acute beryllium disease is a pulmonary irritant response to high exposure levels, whereas chronic beryllium disease (CBD) typically results from a hypersensitivity response to lower exposure levels. A blood test, the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT), was an important advance in identifying individuals who are sensitized to beryllium (BeS) and thus at risk for developing CBD. While there is no true "gold standard" for BeS, basic epidemiologic concepts have been used to advance our understanding of the different screening algorithms.
Topics: Berylliosis; Beryllium; Humans; Models, Theoretical; Probability Theory
PubMed: 20195436
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph7010115