On 25 June, BeST held its first Be Responsible Webinar – Working Safely with Beryllium. During the webinar, Ted Knudson, Vice President of BeST and Director of Regulatory Affairs and Product Stewardship of Materion Corporation, and Dr. Patrick Levy, Director of the Health Business Line and of the Health and Product Risk Agency at SOCOTEC, discussed beryllium and specific industrial hygiene practices to ensure worker protection.
During his presentation, Dr. Patrick Levy touched upon the different regulatory frameworks, REACH and OSH, their deliverables and the interfaces between them. He also elaborated on the establishment process of the binding occupational exposure limit (BOEL) for beryllium. Dr. Patrick Levy also gave an overview of the different regulatory provisions and guidelines for training that exist to ensure proper worker protection.
Ted Knudson elaborated more specifically on the Be Responsible – Beryllium Voluntary Product Stewardship Program (VPSP), which was launched in 2017. He explained that the program gives guidance on the potential health risks related to the exposure to airborne beryllium and that it describes the main sources of exposures. Mr. Knudson also demonstrated how the Be Responsible program can be used to evaluate workplace safety through the Beryllium Worker Protection Model. Additionally, he also gave an overview of the different control strategies, i.e. the measures to be implemented to control dust emission and dispersion for the most frequent operations, within the Voluntary Stewardship Program. More information on the program is available here.