Sunday, 9 May 1999`Don't worry about it,' applicants told
By Enric Volante and Rhonda Bodfield Sander
For 10 years, Norma Flores told people not to worry about getting chronic beryllium disease. Flores worked at Brush Wellman's Tucson factory, where she recruited people to handle beryllium, a potentially deadly metal. Then she discovered she had beryllium disease. She became a bitter critic of the company she once promoted as a good place to work. Her sickness, diagnosed in 1992, was evidence that something was very wrong at the Tucson factory because officials had considered her among the least likely to become ill. From 1983 until she quit in 1994, Flores worked mainly in the front office - away from the manufacturing floor where machines spit out toxic dust that could lodge in workers' lungs. She started as a clerk and planning assistant, but after 16 months was promoted to the personnel department. One of her jobs was to have new workers sign a form letter acknowledging they'd been warned about risks from beryllium. The letter, virtually unchanged from 1979 until 1991, informed employees that beryllium exposure could cause skin irritations, and less frequently, respiratory diseases ``of serious nature.'' The letter also assured workers that the company's constant effort to guard against high exposures ``indicates that such hazards can be controlled.'' There is no mention that people die from beryllium disease. Occasionally, newly hired workers would ask for more information about beryllium hazards. Flores recalls she had a stock answer. ``This is what I believe I would tell every individual when they would look at that piece of paper: `Don't worry about it. Berylliosis is a historical disease. No one ever died of it and if you get the disease, Brush Wellman will take care of you and provide your salary for the rest of your life.' ``That's what I was told (by a supervisor) and that's what I would repeat.'' It was true that no one was known to have died in Tucson, where the plant had operated since 1980. But since the 1940s, the disease had killed dozens of people who worked in or lived near older beryllium plants in other states. The first case of beryllium disease at Brush's Tucson plant occurred in 1986. By the early 1990s, one researcher recalls, industry tests showed surprising results. ``We were starting to see the disease . . . in people such as secretaries, security guards, front office workers,'' says Dr. Lee Newman, a Colorado beryllium disease specialist. That ``very strong set of clues'' suggested the federal exposure limit wasn't working. Flores began to have misgivings as more Tucson workers became sick in the early 1990s. ``When I found out I was diagnosed, it was very difficult for me to recruit and sell the company,'' she says. ``I knew I had beryllium disease, and they were young people trying to get a job there.'' Nevertheless, she says, she continued giving them the standard company line - with one difference. ``If they sensed that I had that disease and they would ask me, I would say, `Yes.' '' Most accepted the job, she says. Today Flores, 49, is a potentially damaging witness against the company on behalf of ex-workers - including herself - who are suing Brush. They claim the company never adequately warned them of the danger and then reneged on a promise to give them full pay for life if they got sick. The company says there is no proof the federal safety standard does not protect workers. Company officials say they trained workers carefully - with printed handouts, videos and seminars - to minimize the risk. And no one authorized Flores to tell workers they'd be paid for life, the company's lawyers say in court documents. How Flores inhaled beryllium dust is uncertain. A company record shows she only handled the metal once - when she helped a worker pour scrap into a plastic bag. She may have breathed beryllium particles when personnel matters took her to the plant floor. Or when employees walked into her office without changing their work clothes. Once, as part of a project to reconstruct the exposure history of a man sickened by beryllium, Flores spent about a week in the plant going through old, dusty time cards. Flores, who suffers today from shortness of breath, says company executives may not have liked having a berylliosis victim welcome new workers, but they did not try to push her out. She left at the urging of her husband 20 months after learning she had the disease. ``He didn't care about whether they would pay me off for the rest of my life or not,'' she says. ``He just wanted me out of there.'' Find out more about beryllium, and visit the Beryllium Support Group Web site to learn more about the disease. |
