In this issue of the journal, Van Dyke and colleagues have shown that the supra-typic genetic marker, HLA-DPB1(E69), has an additive and independent contribution with beryllium exposure to cell-mediated beryllium sensitisation and chronic beryllium disease in a cohort at a US nuclear weapons plant. This finding of statistical independence between required beryllium exposure and genetic characteristics is quantitatively consistent with an earlier finding in a small beryllia ceramics operation, and is extended by a concurrent publication in a second, larger nuclear weapons plant population.
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