The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the agency companies and workers count on, sometimes grudgingly, to make sure that the workplace is a safe as it can be. One of the principal means OSHA uses to ensure workplace safety is by establishing standards for work practices, acceptable levels of chemicals, and so on. Safety isn’t just a matter of standards, however; managers and workers must act together to develop a culture of safety so that safety is a guiding value rather than a matter of compliance. What happens, however, if the standards really aren’t sufficient to keep people safe? It looks like this may be the case with the standard for exposure to beryllium, and some of the people affected include OSHA’s own employees.

Beryllium is an impressive metal: it is lighter than aluminum, yet stiffer than steel. It is an ingredient in atomic bombs and is used in the dental, telecom, and aerospace industries. It shows up in cell phones, computers, cars, and golf clubs. Beryllium is also showing up in recycling operations.

The problem with beryllium is that its dust is toxic. Just a few millionths of a gram can fatally damage lungs and other organs. Exposure to smaller amounts can sensitize the immune system and lead to the development of a disease called chronic beryllium disease. Beryllium is increasingly being used in workplaces, but it appears that this use could be placing workers at risk. The National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver tests and treats people with chronic beryllium disease. Dr. Lee Newman, a leading expert who works at the Center, considers chronic beryllium disease an unrecognized epidemic whose full extent we have scarcely begun to understand.

A standard for exposure to beryllium exists, but it looks like it may be inadequate to ensure safety. That was the concern of Adam Finkel, an OSHA employee who told a reporter that he thought OSHA was not protecting its own workers from the danger of beryllium. Finkel pushed for tests for all OSHA inspectors. According to Finkel, OSHA’s response was to attack and demote him. OSHA denied this charge, and Finkel filed a whistle-blower complaint and settled the case for an undisclosed sum. Perhaps most important, OSHA has since been testing its inspectors for sensitization to beryllium. Of the 271 inspectors tested at the time of this writing, 10 have been found to be sensitized to the metal and are at risk for developing a potentially fatal lung disease. However, as many as 1,000 current and former compliance officers may have been exposed. The largest producer of beryllium, Brush-Wellman Inc. (now Materion Performance Alloys), considers OSHA’s current standards to be inadequate. The company has adopted its own exposure standard for airborne beryllium that is one-tenth the level permitted by OSHA.