TABLE 2.
COMPARISON OF REPORTED EXPOSURE CHARACTERISTICS AMONG SUBJECTS WITH CHRONIC BERYLLIUM DISEASE, SUBJECTS WITH BERYLLIUM SENSITIZATION, AND CONTROL SUBJECTS
|
P Value |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total(n = 386) | Control Subjects(n = 255) | BeS(n = 70) | CBD(n = 61) | BeS versus Control Subjects | CBD versus Control Subjects | BeS versus CBD | |
| Any reported exposure to Be, n (%)* | 333 (86.3%) | 223 (87.4%)‡ | 54 (77.1%) | 56 (91.8%) | 0.031 | 0.342 | 0.022 |
| Year of first Be exposure, median (range)† | 1970 (1952–1996) | 1969 (1952–1971) | 1976 (1952–1996) | 1969 (1953–1990) | n.s. | n.s. | n.s. |
| Highest reported Be exposure, n (%)* | |||||||
| Any direct Be exposure | 233 (60.4%) | 159 (62.3%) | 32 (45.7%) | 42 (68.9%) | 0.012‡ | 0.343 | 0.008‡ |
| a. Directly alter Be part | 112 (29.0%) | 72 (28.2%) | 15 (21.4%) | 25 (41.0%) | 0.255 | 0.052 | 0.015‡ |
| b. Contact with Be waste materials | 90 (23.3%) | 63 (24.7%) | 13 (18.6%) | 14 (23.0%) | 0.283 | 0.774 | 0.536 |
| c. Contact with finished Be part | 31 (8.0%) | 24 (9.4%) | 4 (5.7%) | 3 (4.9%) | 0.329 | 0.259 | 1.0 |
| Any indirect Be exposure | 100 (25.9%) | 64 (25.1%) | 22 (31.4%) | 14 (22.9%) | |||
| d. Work within 5 ft of Be operation | 25 (6.5%) | 18 (7.1%) | 2 (2.9%) | 5 (8.2%) | 0.266 | 0.784 | 0.250 |
| e. Work in same room as Be operation | 17 (4.4%) | 12 (4.7%) | 4 (5.7%) | 1 (1.6%) | 0.756 | 0.475 | 0.371 |
| f. Work in same building as Be operation | 58 (15.0%) | 34 (13.3%) | 16 (22.9%) | 8 (13.1%) | 0.050 | 0.964 | 0.150 |
| No known exposure to Be | 53 (13.7%) | 32 (12.5%) | 16 (22.9%) | 5 (8.2%) | 0.031 | 0.342 | 0.022 |
| Percentage of work time exposed to Be, median (range)† | |||||||
| Directly (categories a–c above) | 1.3% (0–100%) | 1.4% (0–95.0%) | 0% (0–100%) | 4.3% (0–100%) | 0.104 | 0.068 | 0.009 |
| Indirectly (categories d–f above) | 5.2% (0–100%) | 6.1% (0–100%) | 3.1% (0–100%) | 10.0% (0–100%) | n.s. | n.s. | n.s. |
| Directly or indirectly | 16.9% (0–100%) | 15.9% (0–100%) | 10.6% (0–100%) | 33.6% (0–100%) | n.s. | n.s. | n.s. |
| Ever exposed to Be oxide, n (%)* | 22 (5.7%) | 13 (5.1%) | 5 (7.1%) | 4 (6.6%) | 0.555 | 0.751 | 1.0 |
| Ever worked as a Be machinist, n (%)* | 48 (12.4%) | 33 (12.9%) | 6 (8.6%) | 9 (14.7%) | 0.319 | 0.708 | 0.268 |
Definition of abbreviations: BeS = beryllium sensitization; CBD = chronic beryllium disease; n.s. = not significant (Kruskal-Wallis P > 0.05).
* Compared by chi-square or Fisher's exact method; unadjusted P values reported.
†
Compared by Kruskal-Wallis test followed by pair-wise Mann-Whitney test when significant.
‡
Significant after Bonferroni correction (n = 3), α = 0.017.