Beryllium handled in metal plants and associated facilities poses a serious threat to exposed personnel. Due to its high toxicity, it is essential to contain beryllium and its compounds inside enclosures with proper ventilation and negative pressure gradient. Despite this, the possibility of beryllium escaping into the working environment cannot be ruled out. It is therefore necessary to estimate the beryllium intake of the personnel to ensure that the burden is below the permissible limits. Because the whole-body counting technique adopted for radioactive materials obviously cannot be used in this case, establishment of the beryllium burden from bioassay analysis of urine and fecal samples from the exposed subjects is the method adopted.
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