Two years after beryllium hazards were disclosed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a weapons lab east of San Francisco, worker exposure to the toxic metal has continued, a local CBS investigation found.
As recently as February, a machinist was exposed to beryllium despite working in a “non-beryllium work area,” CBS 5 reports. A safety official at Livermore said the worker was given a part that contained beryllium. The part was moved around over the years and lost its tag along the way, so the worker was unaware of the hazard, the official said. The inspector general for the Department of Energy is investigating the incident.
A 2008 CBS 5 investigation found five documented cases of beryllium exposure. In one case, 178 workers were exposed during construction work. A survey of the buildings at the decades-old aerospace and weapons lab also found 20 contaminated buildings.
Dust from the rare metal can lead to fatal scarring of the lungs.
i was an employee working on the project in the lawrence livermore lab and would like to get retested