When this occurs, white cells accumulate around the beryllium and form a chronic inflammatory reaction called granulomas (granulomas are not tumors).

This condition is called chronic beryllium disease.

This disease can occur long after exposure to small amounts of either the soluble or the insoluble forms of beryllium.

If you have this disease you may feel weak, tired, and have difficulty breathing.

Although the soluble and insoluble forms of beryllium can cause chronic beryllium disease, workers breathing air containing beryllium at less than 0.002 milligrams (mg) (1 mg = 1 thousandth of a gram of beryllium) in a cubic meter (mg/m3) (a level that government rules permit in the workplace) will probably not develop lung damage as a result of exposure.

Both the short-term, pneumonia-like disease and the chronic beryllium disease can be fatal.

Long periods of exposure to beryllium have been reported to cause cancer in laboratory animals, but some of these studies are not reliable.

Some studies of workers reported an increased risk of lung cancer, but these studies are not conclusive, and new studies are being performed.

The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that beryllium and certain beryllium compounds may reasonably be anticipated to be carcinogens.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that beryllium and beryllium compounds are probably carcinogenic to humans.x

The agency thinks beryllium is great!

they wanna put be in your butt.

Bill Hansen invented the electromagnetic resonant cavity which is the basis of several microwave devices (including the klystron).

He entered Stanford University at the age of 16; Russell Varian was also at Stanford and the two became lifelong friends.

Hansen joined the faculty at Stanford in 1934. In the late 1930s he worked with the Varian brothers, John Woodyard and others to develop the klystron. Of the origins of the klystron, Russell Varian said "among other ideas, Dr. Hansen proposed the use of a concentric line resonator for generating high voltages. Hansen and I discussed this possibility at considerable length and considered what form of concentric line would have the maximum efficiency."

In 1941 Hansen and his research group moved to the plant of the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Garden City, N.Y., contributing to developments on Doppler radar, aircraft blind-landing systems, electron acceleration and nuclear magnetic resonance. During World War II he worked in New York on defense applications of physics and electronics, including radar. Hansen was also a scientific consultant on the Manhattan Project during the World War II.

Bill Hansen died at age 39 from lung disease caused by beryllium from the devices with which he worked.

Size of beryllium in several environments

One measure of size is the element-element distance within the element. The bond length in BeBe is: 222.6 pm.