Limits of Detection of Beryllium in Tissues by Microemission Spectrography

The metal beryllium has been successfully and unequivocally demonstrated by microemission spectrography on a semiquantitative basis in tissue sections 50 microns thick. The beryllium was localized in individual pulmonary granulomas in dogs exposed to beryllium. The determination of the lower limit of detection could indicate the threshold level of beryllium in tissue that can induce injury. Beryllium acetylacetonate dissolved in technical-grade xylene was used to prepare a series of working standards. Initial results indicate that as little as 1.48 × 10−12 gm of beryllium is a sample of paraffin weighing about 2.91 × 108 gm has been detected. Similar or greater quantities of beryllium have been demonstrated in similar-size samples of embedded lung tissue from dogs exposed to beryllium.