This fact sheet is one in a series of summaries about hazardous substances and their health effects. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. Exposure to beryllium happens mostly in the workplace, near some hazardous waste sites, and from breathing tobacco smoke. Lung damage has been observed in some people who have breathed contaminated air.
Some people become highly sensitive to beryllium exposure.
Beryllium has been found in at least 349 of 1,300 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency. In nature, beryllium can be found in compounds in mineral rocks, coal, soil, and volcanic dust. Beryllium compounds are commercially mined, and the beryllium purified for use in electrical parts, machine parts, ceramics, aircraft parts, nuclear weapons, and mirrors. Beryllium compounds have no particular smell. Beryllium dust gets into air from burning coal and oil.