Under the program, the state will pay for the tests and followup exams for 55 current or former employees who have visited the plant or several smaller sites with the potential for beryllium exposure. The state Controlling Board, a seven-member panel, voted unanimously yesterday to waive the state's competitive bidding process so the state can contract with the Cleveland Clinic Center for Corporate Health to do the testing. Cleveland Clinic is the only laboratory in Ohio that can do the work, said Don McNeal, the state EPA's fiscal officer. The Ohio EPA became interested in offering blood tests last year after a six-part Blade series documented how the U.S. government and the beryllium industry knowingly allowed thousands of workers to be exposed to unsafe levels of beryllium dust.
Beryllium is a strong, lightweight metal.
Its dust can cause a chronic, often-fatal lung illness. Workers with blood abnormalities must undergo further tests to determine whether they have the disease. The testing should start within a few weeks, said Beth Wolf, the Ohio EPA's safety administrator. She said the blood tests will be added to the regular medical monitoring of the five or six EPA employees who make inspections at Brush's Elmore plant. Most of the 55 current or former EPA employees who have signed up for the testing program have worked at Brush's Elmore plant, but a few may have been exposed at two businesses in Marion and a former Brush facility in Luckey.