Beryllium
World Health Organization ; UN. Environment Programme
WHO - Geneva
1990
106 p.
animal experiments ; beryllium ; carcinogenicity ; environmental impact assessment ; metabolic process ; mutagenicity tests ; occurrence ; risk assessment ; sampling and analysis ; teratogenicity tests ; toxic effects ; toxic substances ; toxicology
Environmental Health Criteria
106
Chemicals
English
Bibliogr.
92-4-157106-3
Beryllium is a steel-grey, brittle metal, existing naturally only as the 9Be isotope. Its compounds are divalent. Beryllium has several unique properties. It is the lightest of all solid and chemically-stable substances, with an unusually high melting point, specific heat, heat of fusion, and strength-to-weight ratio. It has excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. Because of its low atomic number, beryllium is very permeable to X-rays. Its nuclear properties include the breaking, scattering, and reflecting of neutrons, as well as the emission of neutrons on alpha-bombardment.
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