What You Can Do to Protect Your Health

* You should not smoke. Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and may make chronic beryllium disease worse. For ways to stop smoking, call the American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA or the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345.

* If you have lung or breathing problems that don't go away, see your doctor. Take the fact sheet For Your Doctor with you.

If you, your doctor, or members of your family have any questions, or would like a copy of the technical reports, call at 1-800-356-4674.

Findings of the NIOSH Beryllium Study

Why the Workplace Study Was Done

The main purpose of the workplace study was to see if exposure to beryllium is associated with lung cancer.

Since inhaling some beryllium compounds caused lung cancer in rats, and may cause it in monkeys, there was concern that it might cause lung cancer in people.

Beryllium is already known to cause chronic beryllium disease, a lung disease. We describe its symptoms in "Steps to Protect Your Health."

How the Workplace Study Was Done

Study Group

We included 7 plants to make sure we had enough workers in the study.

The study group included all men who had worked for at least 2 days at any of the plants between 1940 and 1970.

Records

This study was done without contacting the individual worker because it was based on records. It included living and deceased workers.