Today, I got to teach two grad students the Art of Distrusting Beryllium & Prior Workers. As people who is responsible for bad things, they need to develop both respect and Suspicious Bastard skills.
“Seriously?!?”, “FUCK!”, and “Why would they even do that?” got said a lot as I told stories.
They are my new disciples. Beryllium Twitter (me) must grow.
I also had to teach “Beryllium is a very different kind of toxic bad than arsenic and cadmium. Sometimes poisons are much more immediate and you don’t need to worry about cancer risk.”
[muttering] Stupid radioactive GaAs and arsine decon.
Yes, but it isn't normally acutely toxic. It can kill you much faster than mesothelioma, but it ain't proper a metabolic poison like arsenic, cadmium and cyanide..
These discussions make me feel immense relief that I am no longer dealing with (even obliquely) contaminant remediation.
And yet... I will never forget the series of arguments I needed to have to maintain stipulations for funded arsenic testing of drinking water wells near an oil project.
