MIT Berylliosis cases

MIT Manhattan Project beryllium machining work (corner of Mass Ave) discovered berylliosis through machinist deaths in mid-to-late 1940s. Tom adds the contemporary anecdote of Professor Shu finding a 1946-era bottle of beryllium powder in Professor Grant's lab during a department cleanup. Used to explain beryllium's manufacturing cost (toxicity controls) and the 10% genetic predisposition figure.

This was discovered right up here on the corner of Mass Ave. Not where we have Building 35, but on the corner of the other side of the railroad tracks — or it could have been on this side where the little bank kiosk is in the parking lot. MIT, during the Manhattan Project in World War II, was working on beryllium for some nuclear warheads. It was a new material. There were faculty members here working on the metallurgy of beryllium, with a little machine shop, machining beryllium parts. Towards the end of World War II, beginning of just after the war, a few of the machinists started dying of this lung disease. They tracked it down to berylliosis, which had never been discovered before because it was a new material.

Manhattan-Project-era machine shop at the corner of Mass Ave and Vassar; workers in 1944–45 contaminated by beryllium machining; building eventually entombed in concrete and dumped in Boston Harbor.

Beryllium is interesting because it's very light — actually has almost the same density as magnesium, very slightly more dense. It has very good high temperature capabilities. But it's extremely expensive because of its toxicity. If you're in the ten percent of the population that has a genetic predisposition to have your lungs react with beryllium, any beryllium compound that gets in your lung — whether it's metallic beryllium or beryllium oxide or beryllium chloride — will grow these nodules in your lungs and you will slowly suffocate. This was all discovered up here on the corner of Mass Ave and Vassar, during the Manhattan Project in World War II. They had a machine shop there. Right now it's a Bank of America kiosk and stuff — at least I'm pretty sure that's where it was. Guys were machining beryllium alloys which were sort of new because the Mechanical Engineering Department came up with this way to vacuum melt metals, and they were able to make beryllium alloys which were very light, and they had some uses for them in the nuclear weapons. They were machining things experimentally here at MIT, and some of these guys in 1944 and 45 started coming down with these health problems. They ended up contaminating the whole building. I've heard the story, I've never confirmed it — it actually eventually just sat there for about ten or twelve years. My thesis advisor told me some of this because he was an undergraduate here in the mid-50s when it was sort of sitting there. They eventually encased it in concrete and carried it and dropped it in Boston Harbor.

[Tom passes around a sample of beryllium.] You can see beryllium is an interesting material. It's fairly abundant but we don't use it a lot. Anybody know why we don't use it? Brittle? No, it's not actually that brittle, it's actually fairly ductile. This is a piece of beryllium, cost me $130. Typically beryllium will go for $1,000 an ounce or so. It's very toxic. It's not toxic to touch. The toxicity is if you breathe in particles, whether they're beryllium oxide, sulfide, or metal. It was all discovered up here on the corner of Mass Ave and Vassar — I think it's near where that Bank of America is. During World War II, in the Manhattan Project, there were some people at MIT machining beryllium for the Manhattan Project. It was a fairly new metal, and some of them got berylliosis. If you get the particles in your lungs by breathing them in, ten percent of the people in the world have a genetic predisposition to form these nodules on your lungs. There is no cure. You just basically suffocate over time. The first people ever to have this disease were a couple MIT machinists. They just shut the building down because it was full of powdered beryllium. They supposedly eventually encased everything in concrete and buried it in Boston Harbor. That's the story I've heard. That was sixty years ago and that was okay back then, environmentally. And actually, if you encase it in concrete, it lasts forever in the ocean. No one's going to be breathing those particles anytime soon.

First berylliosis cases ever discovered — at MIT, post-WWII, in the Manhattan Project beryllium machining building at Mass Ave / Vassar. Ten percent of population genetically predisposed; fatal lung disease.

Nope, it's not lighter — you can pass it around, it's actually a little bit more dense because copper is heavier. [Student suggests beryllium toxicity.] If you breathe beryllium — if you get beryllium powder in your lungs — ten percent of the population have a genetic predisposition to berylliosis, and you will get berylliosis and you will soon die because you will grow these big nodules in your lungs and you will just slowly suffocate to death over several weeks. The first berylliosis case ever discovered was at MIT, right after World War II, right up there where the BayBank or the little kiosk is in the parking lot, the border of Mass Ave and Vassar. There was a building there once, and during World War II in the Manhattan Project they were machining beryllium, which is a nice new material. Several of the people there got berylliosis and died, and so they learned about berylliosis. It is a very toxic material in any form — oxide, metallic — but you have to breathe it into your lungs to have the problem.