Each subsequent exposure leads to an immune response involving CD4+ helper T-lymphocytes and macrophages accumulating in the lungs.

As this response continues macrophages, CD4+ T-lymphocytes and plasma cells aggregate together to form the noncaseating granulomas.

[11] The HLA-DPB1 gene is important for MHC class II molecule function on antigen presenting cells.

Those researchers concluded that chronic beryllium disease is a predisposition that lies between "allergic hypersensitivity and autoimmunity.

[15] The test is performed by acquiring either peripheral blood or fluid from a bronchial alveolar lavage, and lymphocytes are cultured with beryllium sulfate.

In later stages interstitial fibrosis, pleural irregularities, hilar lymphadenopathy and ground-glass opacities have been reported.

Findings that are common in CT scans of people with berylliosis include parenchymal nodules in early stages.

[25] Certain welding anodes along with other electrical contacts and even non-sparking tools are made of beryllium copper alloy and the subsequent machining of such materials would cause the disease as well.

[26] It is important to damp wipe metallographic preparation equipment to prevent accumulation of dry particles.

Sectioning, grinding, and polishing must be performed under sufficiently vented hoods equipped with special filters.

[27] On 29 January 2009, the Los Alamos National Laboratory announced it was notifying nearly 2,000 current and former employees and visitors that they may have been exposed to beryllium in the lab and may be at risk of disease.

Concern over possible exposure to the material was first raised in November 2008, when a box containing beryllium was received at the laboratory's short-term storage facility.

[29] Once clinical symptoms or significant abnormalities in pulmonary function testing appear, treatments include oxygen and oral corticosteroids and whatever supportive therapy is required.

[39] However, a study found 1% of people living within 3/4 of a mile of a beryllium plant in Lorain, Ohio, had berylliosis after exposure to concentrations estimated to be less than 1 milligram per cubic metre of air.

[40][41] Since the 1920s, beryllium has been used in electronics, ceramics, research and development labs, aircraft, and the atomic energy and defense industry.

[26] Cases of bronchitis and pneumonia-like symptoms were reported in Germany and Russia in the 1930s among workers mining and refining beryllium.