2009-02-16

Don't Rub Beryllium Tools on your Skin

Cool fact: beryllium scissors, screwdrivers and pliers are used near MRI machines since the metal doesn't react (noticeably) to the magnetic field. I looked into getting some Be-tools, but apparently the metal is highly toxic and the tool sets are really expensive. $4,000 a tool-set expensive. Weak.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

I only remember that a DOE worker was telling me about some grueling times at a beryllium clean-up site. I don't think that this was the one, but for example:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05EFDA113DF933A15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2

oogRobot said...

The more I learn about MRI machines, the less I want one. Sigh.